I am so old, I can remember when liberals at least pretended to be patriotic. And some of them really were. George McGovern, for instance, was a legitimate World War II hero, flying a B-24 Liberator in combat. He was wrong about many things, but he wasn’t wrong because he hated his country.
Fast forward to now. We have been seeing poll data for some years, indicating that liberals generally are not proud to be Americans. The Washington Times headlines: “Independence Day on track to be a conservative holiday, experts say.” The article cites the sorts of poll data that are now familiar. For example:
A nationwide survey of 2,000 college students reported Tuesday that 76% of self-identified conservative undergraduates feel “proud to be an American,” while 40% of liberals feel likewise.
This year, we are seeing more liberals not just ignoring the 4th of July, but condemning it. Arizona Democrats promoted a “Fuck the Fourth” event:
They eventually deleted the tweet, but continued to promote the event.
Many celebrities tell us they are not celebrating Independence Day this year because of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling. Singer Better Midler tweeted, “4th of July has been canceled due to a shortage of Independence. Sincerely, Women.” Of course, this makes no sense: Dobbs liberated women (and men) from having abortion policy dictated by nine unelected judges, and restored the issue to democratic rule. But the deeper phenomenon that we see reflected in many ways is the lack of any underlying patriotism among liberals: they approve of their country only as long as they get their way.
Goodness knows that from the 1960s to the present, there were many Supreme Court decisions (not to mention legislative and administrative actions) with which conservatives disagreed. But that didn’t cause us to stop celebrating Independence Day, or to suggest that our country’s existence is, on balance, a bad thing.
The growing fissure over Independence Day is one sign among many that our society is cracking up. Patriotism, love of country, belief in a shared citizenship with those with whom we disagree–however you want to put it, is the glue that holds a country together. Our polity is losing those values, and thus, if present trends are not reversed, it will be an open question it is possible for red and blue America to continue to live together under a common government.
UPDATE: Two more, both via InstaPundit. From the home page of ESPN, one of many companies that apparently doesn’t know who its audience is:
And this: After 30+ Years, NPR Cancels Declaration of Independence Reading. Instead of the Declaration, NPR featured a liberal panel discussing “on this July 4th, what does equality mean?” You might think it odd that a “national public” radio network would hate the nation in question and its public, but if you keep in mind that “National Public Radio” really means “National Government Radio,” it makes sense.
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