Honest Reflections On America’s 250th Birthday

I sat down on July 4th to write my final reflection about the 250th anniversary of America’s independence, but I hit a wall…the sort of writer’s block that is typically very foreign to me. I chatted with ChatGPT about it…utter rubbish. I so wanted to offer a positive message that was not shallow or trite…and I could not come up with anything.

I’m going to try again here, writing rather contemporaneously, and rather than try to keep it positive, I’m going to keep it honest, because it is the truth that shall set us free, not rose-colored glasses fraught with sentimentality that hides the reality that is visible to everyone who seeks it.

My previous essays on my love for America were quite genuine: I love this country and love the American experiment. I also love our great potential to rise above division and to work together to accomplish great things, which I will return to below.

We live in a very divided age, but from the great Jefferson-Hamilton debate to the slave debate to the reluctance of America to enter both World Wars, to the great racial reconciliation of the 1960s…we’re hardly unique in our division and even now under a narcissistic, piggish dotard who styles himself as king, the state of our union is far stabler than it was during the civil rights movement and Vietnam era just one generation ago.

I’d love to say we are not a violent nation, but we must reckon with our history of violence. The assassination attempts against the current White House occupant, whether staged or real, come from a line long of violence that traces back to Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy…and those are just the presidential assassinations that were successful.

We are a violent people that glorifies violence in our culture and the Pandora’s box of personal firearms makes this a daunting problem to solve.

I’d love to say we are not a hateful nation, but we must reckon with our history of hate. Our history is complex, but full of sin like the Trail of Tears, the kidnapping and forced enslavement of human beings, Japanese internment during World War II, and a systematic subjugation of black people. For the ruling class, it came down to the hubris that they were better than other people that at its foundation is driven by the lust for power and wealth, a problem that has flummoxed humanity since the very beginning.

Two present-day examples. Look at the reaction to Justice Barrett’s vote to affirm birthright citizenship, a Constitutional principle that has been fixed for 150 years. Right wing populists foaming at the mouth in outrage, pointing to her black adopted children as “smoking gun” evidence that she “hates” this country. Look at the bigotry of the left in denying the right of Israel to exist or shockingly opposing interracial marriage, as Darializa Avila Chevalier condemned black men for “fetishizing ugly colonizer women.” And yet that bigot is likely to be the next Congresswoman from New York’s 13th Congressional District.

We cannot just pat ourselves on the back and say that we’re doing great. But if my analysis stopped there, it would be woefully incomplete.

*     *     *

I’ll never forget the unity I saw on display in the day’s after the September 11, 2001 attacks. It was a coming-of-age moment for me to see the nation rally together…almost instantly…and remains a stain upon President Bush–who I proudly served in the White House as my first job out of university–that he funneled that political capital toward a war of choice in Iraq rather than a call to public service that could have transformed this country into a more perfect union. Indeed, it was his foreign policy blunders, as well-intentioned as they were, that led to the current iteration of the GOP.

Perhaps I’m kidding myself…when have we ever as a nation been unified for more than a brief period? Still, we see the potential in certain moments and I yearn for the next such moment, hoping that it does not take another attack to occur.

Let’s turn now to the positive and proudly recognize that his country has done so much more than show potential as it transformed itself from a renegade British colony to the most powerful nation on earth.

Do we as a nation struggle with violence and hate? Yes, as do all people if they are being honest. But even if the last 1-5 years seems like a setback, the U.S. continues to become a more perfect union, striving to ensure every person has equal justice under law and giving everyone unparalleled opportunity to achieve great things through hard work.

I’m not a Marxist and wholly refute the idea that workers are enslaved by their masters who own the means of production via the opium of religion…the American story is one of innovation, determination, and a flurry of successes: rags-to-riches stories that have transformed the world in very positive ways.

We are at our best not when we export democracy ourselves, but when we live it out here in a way in which we are faithful to the idea of being a shining city on the hill. We are an “exceptional” nation not in the sense of being better than others (by many metrics, we are simply are not), but in terms of the exceptional nature of what we have done…and are continuing to do.

The American sacrifice of fighting in World War I and World War II and then helping to rebuild Japan and Western Europe after the war cannot be overstated, nor can the Cold War investments that eventually led to a domino-effect of communist governments collapsing in Europe and topped the Soviet Union. The conditions that reward hard work have led to amazing discoveries and advances leading to improved quality of life for the entire world. Economic disparity is a perennial problem, but even the poorest state of Mississippi is wealthier than the United Kingdom on a per-capita basis.

Look at how World Cup visitors to the USA have been astonished by how nice this country is…our cities, our towns, our parks, our food, and most of all, our people. That did not spring up organically, but marks the culmination of 250 years of an experiment in ordered liberty that has promoted human flourishing in ways that still make the U.S. the envy of the world.

*     *     *

I’ve traveled the world (over 150 countries) and if I’m being honest, there are things I deeply love about other nations that the U.S. could learn from, particularly in Northern Europe. We could do health care better far better in this country and the work-life balance in Scandinavia strikes me as far superior to the US, without compromising productivity. Our infrastructure in the United States is aging and inadequate. As an attorney, I despise how litigious our society is.

But there’s nowhere I’d rather run my business than in the United States and I strongly value our First Amendment protections of free speech and religious freedom. In many parts of the world, even in the developed world, free speech rights are censored and regulated in a way that violates natural law and enshrines hierarchy or censorship that should be subject to the marketplace of ideas. I love that I can speak my mind in this country and not fear ultimate jeopardy for a viewpoint that may be deemed unfashionable.

A perfect union is not always linear, but the trajectory of the last 250 years has been toward continually refining our understanding of the Declaration of Independence, which held that “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

That self-evident truth is based on the notion that “governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,” and that remains the fundamental basis of our nation.

So as we begin the next 250 years, I think it’s necessary to carefully self-examine ourselves, noting that, to borrow biblical language, we have often “sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) as a people and a nation. At the same time, we can rejoice in what America has meant to us, to the world, and for the force of good that it can continue to be…if we let it.

The American story has never been about perfection. It has been about the difficult work of becoming more faithful to the ideals that gave birth to this nation in the first place. That’s work worth continuing.

Get Daily Updates

Join our mailing list for a daily summary of posts! We never sell your info.

SUBSCRIBE!

You have Successfully Subscribed!