A recent poll that CNN shared says only 29% of Democrats are proud to be American, but if you step outside of the news cycle and into a World Cup watch party, you’ll see a version of this country that the media has been trying to bury for 30 years.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!
I love America. A lot of people do. In fact, I think most normie Americans do, and so do a lot of people around the world. Watching the World Cup footage and posts online has been amazing because so many visitors from other countries have flooded into the United States and have been posting about how blown away they are by what real America is like. Not the America they hear about in the news.
The America that’s been demonized and criticized to death for a solid three decades—at least. Being given the chance to see this country through the eyes of people who have never been here before gives us the ability to appreciate it in a new way.
I got this experience from my first husband. He was straight off the boat from Belarus. For those of you who don’t know, Belarus has been ruled since 1994 by Alexander Lukashenko, who is often referred to as “Europe’s last dictator.”
One night, we were watching South Park, and it was an episode where they were TP-ing some houses: “Bridget, what is this thing you do in America with toilet paper?”
And I explained that it’s a classic prank where people throw rolls of toilet paper over trees, bushes, and the roof of a house so the paper unrolls and covers everything in long streamers. It’s just a common teenage/housecoming tradition prank, usually harmless and meant to be funny, though the cleanup is annoying for the homeowner. Especially if it rains man, then it’s a nightmare.
And he stared at me. “You mean to tell me while I was standing in line for toilet paper, you were throwing it in trees?”
That line pretty much summed it all up for me, but there were many instances where living with him, I realized I’d been born into extravagant wealth and privilege most people in the world cannot begin to comprehend.
I also realized that traveling as much as I have traveled, particularly to the developing world. Places like India, where on a bus across the country you shit in a hole in the ground because there are no public restrooms and you witness levels of poverty that are hard to imagine. Or Sri Lanka, which had rolling blackouts constantly and you never knew if you’d have wifi or power or if the country was going to erupt into civil war again. Nothing takes me back to my time in Egypt quite like the smell of burning garbage. True Patriarchies, where I learned to avert my eyes and cover my wrists and thought about how crazy it is in America I can be a mouth broad in booty shorts.
Even coming back from Spain felt like returning to a place that was wealthy beyond measure. This country is a goddamn miracle, and I think that most of the time we just take all of it for granted. But it’s our 250th birthday, and we need to take a moment to find some gratitude for this place.
First, I’d like to thank the men and women who sign up to keep this nation safe and to honor those who came before us, who gave the ultimate sacrifice, their lives, in order that we may live in this imperfect nation. And I do want to take a moment of silence for those who have fallen in the battle they waged abroad or the one they waged silently, when they returned home. You are the real heroes of this nation.
Even before the World Cup started, I’ve watched videos of people documenting their trips to America. A lot of them talked about how they were worried about how unsafe it would be. They were told it was dangerous by the media and by friends, and then they got here and they were like, “Holy shit, this is incredible.”
They love how big it is, how different all the landscapes are, how you can find beaches and mountains and deserts and bayous and farms and charming coastal towns straight out of a tourist brochure. They love the food and the yellow school buses, and the stunning natural beauty and the guns.
They LOVE the guns. Once they get here, they go to a gun range and are like, “I get it. I understand now why Americans love their guns.”
But most of all, they’re blown away by how friendly Americans are. Because we are goddamn friendly. They can’t get over how strangers will just start talking to you in a store or in the middle of the street, and you can wind up in a 15-minute conversation that ends up with an invitation over to their houses for a BBQ.
America takes a lot of shit. From the rest of the world and from its own people.
Do we have our problems? Yes. Is the history of our country a bit dodgy? Absolutely. But name me one country in the world that doesn’t have a dodgy history of its own.
When CNN reported that just 27 percent of Democrats say they’ll display the flag on July 4th and that just 29 percent of Democrats say they’re extremely, or very proud, to be an American, I wanted to know if this was just a vibe or something deeper, so I asked you guys what makes you proud. I asked: What do YOU love about this country? What makes you proud to be American? And if you’re not American — what’s your favorite thing about us?
I got hundreds upon hundreds of responses.
In going through all the responses I got from everyone about why they love America, four main themes emerged as the most popular.
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
This was number one by a mile. And what was interesting is the people who felt it most viscerally weren’t the ones who were born here — it was the people who’d spent time somewhere else.
Multiple people said they’d lived in Germany, or been stationed in Europe with the military, and came back genuinely shaken by how little speech protection actually exists over there. We think of Western Europe as these enlightened liberal democracies, and then you realize — oh, you can actually get arrested for a Facebook post in the UK, which we’ve covered on Dumpster Fire.
Freedom of speech is one of the hills I’ll die on. It is our greatest strength as a country, and we have to recognize the sheer brilliance of the founders in understanding that freedom of speech is the cornerstone of a free country.
My favorite response on this: “I get to talk all the shit I want. That seems silly, but it turns out to be vital.” Yes. It IS vital. That’s the whole thing.
THE DOCUMENTS
The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, and The Bill of Rights. People LOVE the documents. One person bought their newly-naturalized coworker a copy of the Bill of Rights as a citizenship gift.
As many brilliant thinkers have pointed out, The Constitution does not grant rights. It secures rights that already exist. The Bill of Rights does not list everything a citizen may do. Instead, it prohibits the government from doing certain things to a citizen.
In America, the government doesn’t give you permission to exist; you’re born free, and the rules are there to keep them off your back. That was the opposite of every previous human society.
GUNS
Number three was guns. Of course it was. I asked hundreds of Americans what they love about their country, and the third most popular answer was guns. We are so on brand. I love us.
Here’s what got me though: Multiple non-Americans cited the Second Amendment as something they envied. Including this absolute gem: “I’m a Dutch import now a citizen. I came for the date and stayed for the guns.” And then there was a guy who has never even been to America who wrote: “I’ve always envied two things from you folks: freedom of speech, and the Second Amendment. Without those you’d be like any other country. Fight for those.”
There was even a recent video about this from a British dude talking about how British people are a bunch of pussies now when it comes to protecting their nation, and they’ve been totally pacified through the removal of the right to bear arms.
I’m not saying we should put a Glock on the birthday cake, but maybe just a small one next to the sparklers?
THE FREEDOM TO BUILD YOUR OWN LIFE
This one came in a lot of forms. Self-determination. Opportunity. The ability to fail and try again. Someone wrote, “America is the ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ Nation.” Someone else wrote: “People come here with nothing and then own stores in my neighborhood. You can start a business, or you can work for one of the big guys. You can decide to slack, or you can put in the effort and become wealthy. It’s truly incredible, and I don’t think it happens in any other country.”
And then there were the responses that didn’t fit neatly into any category but deserved their own moment. Someone wrote: “Being able to crank up Pantera at 3 am and nobody complains. Actually my neighbors will be like, ‘why weren’t we invited.’ Had cops show up and dance with us.”
Someone answered, “It’s where I keep all my stuff.” Fair enough.
Some of the best responses were from immigrants, or the children of immigrants. People for whom the promise of the American dream is a reality, it’s not just something they were born into and take for granted.
Now a lot of you might say, “But Bridget, you were just ranting about immigration.” Here’s my stance on this. It’s pretty much what the common sense stance was until about five minutes ago. I support legal immigration because America has always been strengthened by people who come here legally, work hard, learn English, and embrace our Constitution and culture.
But we've had far too much illegal immigration in recent years, and it has overwhelmed our borders, housing, schools, and hospitals and hurt the quality of life for everyone. Just ask Europe how it’s working out for them, too.
We need secure borders, we have to end catch-and-release, and deport criminals and recent illegal entrants. Assimilation is essential — immigrants should respect our laws and adopt core American values like liberty and self-reliance. Anyone who enters illegally or openly hates America and wants to replace or destroy our way of life has no right to be here. Sharia courts? Get the fuck out of here. Citizenship is a privilege, not a license to undermine the country.
Some of the most poignant replies were from people whose families fled something terrible, usually that something being communism. Because a lot of times, lately, when you ask an American what they love about America, sometimes you get: "Very little lately." But when you ask someone who escaped something — you get a completely different answer
One person wrote: "My favorite thing about America is that it gave my family a place to go after they were killed, their property was stolen, and their freedom was sacrificed to a government ideology called communism." No elaboration needed on that one.
Someone else: "I was married to a Polish man that escaped communism. My family came from Cuba. We had our lands taken. We were jailed. We were killed. So yeah, I celebrate the independence of this country because it became a haven where my family landed." And they ended it with: "I wish people really understood the power of our constitution." Me too, honestly.
A Hungarian student who arrived to study at BU in September 2001 — think about that timing — wrote: "I was taught the lesson which shaped my way of thinking forever: 'Stop saying no, János, start saying yes.' This is the fundamental difference between the old and the new world." He arrived a week before 9/11. And his takeaway was still optimism.
Still: America taught me to say yes. And this is a gift that America gives us all. Dream big. Say yes.
And then there was a Canadian who wrote in to say he watched the September 11th attacks from Calgary. "How you rallied as a people. Strangers helping strangers. As a Canadian, it was inspiring. My heart was filled with hope." He also helpfully described Canada as "the shit parts of America combined with the shit parts of Europe." God bless our neighbors.
The pattern across all of them is the same: the people with something to compare it to love it the most. The people who had to choose it — who earned it, who fled toward it — they know exactly what it is. They're not confused about it.
One guy from a Greek immigrant family put it simply: "I love the fact that we are all from somewhere else, we are all individuals, and yet somehow we actually get things done. Look how much better the world is since the ascent of America."
Look how much better the world is since the ascent of America. I promise you this--you don’t want to live in the world with a fallen America.
Happy Birthday, you beautiful, chaotic, Pantera-at-3am, free-refills-having, cheddar-cheese-loving, nobody-is-coming-to-save-you dumpster fire of a country.
I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.