Guy Denton writes for National Review Online about what American naysayers get wrong.
This weekend, America’s 250th birthday deserve[d] an explosive, unapologetic national celebration. Apparently, though, many of those fortunate enough to call this country home [didn’t join] the party.
In recent weeks, celebrities and political figures have offered predictable twaddle about America’s supposed wickedness. Robert De Niro, evoking a senile Travis Bickle, equated modern patriotism with domestic violence: “I hate to say it, but loving our country is starting to sound like an abused spouse saying they love their abuser.” Joy Reid derided Independence Day as a “celebration of slaveholders.” And Gavin Newsom declared, “The Founding Fathers did not live and die for this moment. I can’t celebrate July 4th.”
Such negativity isn’t simply a luxury belief. A slew of new polls have shown widespread public pessimism toward America and its future. Would the signers of the Declaration of Independence be satisfied with the modern United States? Do the country’s best years still lie ahead? Is democracy in a healthy state? In the eyes of the majority, the answer to all of these questions is a decisive no. One in five Americans [didn’t] even plan to mark the Fourth of July this year.
This moment of bad feelings, however, is absurd on its face. America, for all its flaws and complexities, remains a singularly magnificent nation whose promise is alive and well. Anyone who considers it too tainted to celebrate should be brought back to reality.
Certainly, things are not perfect, and we should recognize our various ills. Our political culture has grown frantic, and rabid polarization rules the day. Our formative institutions — families, schools, and local communities — are in decline, and this decay has left many Americans adrift. Our system of government is threatened by dysfunction.
But these problems are surmountable, and history suggests that they will be solved. Americans have made a remarkable habit of overcoming far greater challenges.
