“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation…..” So opens our nation’s founding political document signed 249 years ago this July 4.
Nevertheless, according to the latest Gallup Poll, patriotism has taken a tumble. Altogether a record-low 58 percent of U.S. adults say they are “extremely” (41%) or “very” (17%) proud to be an American, down 9 points from last year. Only 36 percent of Democrat respondents said they’re “extremely” or “very” proud to be American while 92% of Republicans said the same. Differences emerge between demographics. Seventy percent of adults in older generations are proud to be Americans, while only 40 percent of Gen Z (born 1997 to 2012) expressed similar pride.
What’s going on? Polarizing politics and the incumbent in the White House no doubt shapes such opinion. Ignorance of our system of government, revisionist history (see the 1619 Project), and outright disdain for our democratic republic peddled by some also contributes to negative views of the United States.
Can you disagree with our nation’s leaders and still be proud of your country? The Declaration of Independence is a document of dissent. It made a legal case against King George’s violation of the colonists’ rights. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution secures the right to dissent through freedom of speech, assembly and to petition the government. Such ideals are worthy of celebrating regardless of who’s in office today.
What about our system of government? According to a 2024 survey by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) nearly two-thirds of U.S. college students couldn’t name the Speaker of the House or the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. Sixty percent didn’t know term lengths for members of Congress. Michael Poliakoff, President of the ACTA, said, “The dismal results of our survey show that current students and recent college graduates have little idea of the American past or its core principles and values, no guide to take them through the roiling controversies facing us today or to enable them to defend and protect the free institutions that are the glory of our nation and an inspiration to the world.”
Yet there are some who recast the American experiment as racist (yes, the First Amendment protects the right to say such a thing), but opinions without facts deserve ridicule. The lead writer for the New York Time’s infamous 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones, originally claimed that “one of the primary reasons the colonists decided to declare their independence from Britain was because they wanted to protect the institution of slavery.” The project also claimed “nearly everything that has truly made America exceptional” grew “out of slavery…and the anti-black racism it required.”
No doubt, America’s original sin of slavery undermined the Declaration’s promise of equal rights across racial lines and is a blight on our history. It represents a failure of the American founders to live up to their ideals But it wasn’t the motivating force for the 56 colonial representatives who “pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor” and signed the Declaration.
When citizens don’t understand the kind of government and the freedoms it is supposed to secure, it is easy to discredit it and replace it with an alternative vision. This is how New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani got elected. Mamdani, seizing on the evident disparity and suffering, believes the city should run the grocery stores. He publicly admitted that “he and his cause need to soft-pedal their real aims, because people don’t yet believe in… the end goal of seizing the means of production.” So how does a city that was built on private property rights and free market ideals elect a candidate with communist ideals?
Certainly not all have prospered under capitalism in New York City. Suffering and financial disparity is on display in New York’s streets. There have been abuses by rip-off artists, and bad actors—status quo for the fallen human condition—but to replace one set of tragedy with a civic ideology far worse takes mighty ignorance. Communism has left countless millions much poorer, destitute, oppressed, and hopeless in its wake.
The central difference between communism and our democratic republic is that God is the central organizing principle in our body politic. The Declaration says that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Without an authority above government, government becomes the ultimate authority. Instead of rights being seen as God-given and unalienable, they are seen as whatever those in power say they are—breeding ground of tyranny.
To live a life unencumbered by the heavy hand of government is a dream that millions from around the world line up for. We are free, unlike most nations throughout history, to develop God-given abilities and talents to create, provide for families, build up our communities, and to live according to our religious convictions. The result is sometimes messy. We often fall short. We are still a work in progress. But when we fall short, we have institutional protections that allow for significant recourse: the rule of law, private property rights, due process in court. We can even get involved with the political process and run for elective office ourselves.
We live in a time of great political division. But so did our founding fathers. Even close friends became alienated over politics. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, once political allies, turned against each other over political differences. They even refused to speak for years. Yet near the end of their lives, they reconciled. Both men died on the 50th anniversary of their monumental political writ: July 4, 1826. Their story reminds us that our fundamental shared ideals can overcome even deep political differences. May we reflect and celebrate the truths that bind us together as a people on our nation’s 249th birthday.