America Can Learn A Lot From Our Small Towns

Coastal elites across America thumb their noses as small-town “hicks” and “rednecks”. This whole week, they have been stomping their feet and proclaiming loudly from their MacBook Air keyboards, “F#ck the Fourth”.

They are the educated ones who moved out of “po-dunk” (insert small-town name here) and into the big city or the suburbs. They are the ones who garden on weekends, talking to their plants and cats after attending the weekend protests, waving signs emblazoned with swastikas at car dealerships. They straighten their “In This House” lawn sign and retreat inside to watch MSNBC report on how f#cked-up our America is. They then text their friends to tell them how utterly upset they are at the Orange Voldemort President these “dumb rednecks elected”, how they “don’t feel patriotic” on this Forth of July because we are “on the brink of war” and “Trump is taking health care away”.

To them, patriotism is a feeling and not a way of life. It’s like everything else in their realm of existence-a life based on feelings of the moment. Roger Kimball of American Greatness discusses this nuance of feelings of the moment versus the patriotism that should embody, and unite us as Americans. He cites Walter Bern’s Making Patriots to support his idea that small-toes patriotism should not be a thing of the past that gets squashed under the noise of present dissent:

Berns begins by noting that although Lincoln’s words are even more obviously true today than before, the patriotism that Lincoln commended (and which he knew was necessary to guarantee liberty) no longer enjoys widespread public support, at least among this country’s elites.

For many educated people today, mention of the word “patriotism” instantly brings to mind Samuel Johnson’s misunderstood observation that ‘patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.’ It is misunderstood because, as Johnson’s friend and biographer James Boswell explained when reporting the phrase, Johnson did not mean to disparage ‘a real and generous love of our country’ but only that ‘pretended patriotism’ that is a “cloak for self-interest”.-Roger Kimball, American Greatness

If we want to speak about patriotism and the “cloak of self-interest”, look no further than the DOGE smears when the excessive (and ridiculous) USAID spending came to light. How the decibels of the screeching were off the charts. Let’s talk about backroom “deals” that have been done by our former president, Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. Let’s talk about leaving America (and Americans) hung out to dry at their expense, insult upon injury, with no end in sight. Any opposition to the corrupt practices of the Democrats, the elitists who support them and the subsequent legacy media cover-ups of all of this had coastal elites and suburban Chardonnay-drinkers alike balking at the small-town “nobodys” who dared to raise The Stars and Stripes and talk about what a great country this is. The insults continue to be hurled at those who choose to celebrate Independence Day and reflect upon their blessings to be in a country where they can say, do, believe and live as they please.

What makes America different is that the foundation of its patriotism is not place but principle. The word ‘fatherland,’ Berns notes, does not occur in our patriotic vocabulary because our allegiance is not first of all to our native land (the word ‘nation’ comes from the Latin nasci, ‘to be born’) but to the ideas of freedom that animate it. America really is that paradoxical thing, a ‘nation’ of settlers from other lands. The principles of liberty and popular sovereignty, articulated in such documents as The Federalist Papers, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution, gave rise to what Berns observes was ‘an altogether new’ understanding of what it means to be a patriot. The novus ordo seclorum—’a new order of the ages’—inscribed on our currency commemorates this permanent novelty.”-Roger Kimball, American Greatness

One Nation. Under God. Indivisible.

What happens when American citizens denounce their nation? They still get to live here. What happens when the same Americans denounce God and claim to be atheist because they don’t believe in “The Big Guy Upstairs”? They still get to live here. And, our enemies LOVE a divided country beyond repair. It’s easier to infiltrate and take down when Americans are lost in their “feelings”.

So, they continue with the divisive rhetoric. Just the other day, I was on a community page on Facebook. This page has members of all walks of life, of all socioeconomic backgrounds and of all religious and political beliefs. The page leans liberal sometimes, and, as an American, I realize this is their right to promote LGBTQ++++++ businesses if they so choose. As an American, I will frequent the businesses because of their products and not their ownership, and that should be acceptable. But on Independence Day, an Admin took to this page on to vent their frustrations/feelings. The post featured an upside down flag and read, “Hey MAGA, Please Leave”. The post started out with as a “this is a page created to foster community and uplifting our neighbors”. But, it encouraged those trying to “own the libs” to self-deport off the page. It claimed to be a place where “human lives are valuable” and its desires to be part of fostering a community that “is worth being a part of” and that they, an admin team as a whole, were “tired of the sh*t”.

Human lives are valuable, they said. Except anyone who has ever uttered “MAGA”, for one reason or another, and perhaps the unborn if they are unwanted. These people are not worthy of being part of the community. Honestly, this post was enough to make me want to retreat to a small town for a good ol’ parade of Red, White and Blue because, frankly, I’m tired of their sh*t and looking at their miserable faces that are still masked-up, in the damn grocery store. Hey, MAGA, please leave, they say. Even though some of you have donated more money to food banks and homeless shelters and single mothers in this community than our blue-haired friends, please self-deport. How American of these community members!

The problem with America today is that we made Patriotism take a back seat in lieu of hurting feelings. We have replaced The Pledge of Allegiance in schools with the “Flag Salute”. We have taken God out of our “Flag Salutes”. In some cases, we have made the Pledge just part of going through the motions over an intercom, leading with “I Pledge Allegiance to the Flag”, and muting the rest whilst some students choose to stand with their hands over their hearts, others sit in oblivion, and teachers sit it out in favor of grading assignments until the obligatory “Flag Salute” is over. There is no reverence. People have died in the name of this flag. They don’t freaking care. There are no more required Civics classes, and we’ve created special flags for feelings that continue to divide and not unite us. We’ve posted these flags all over the classrooms. We’ve created conditions for being loving and for performing neighborly gestures based on our political ideologies (show yourself the door if you do not believe what we believe). We’ve created this tribalism and it’s high time we knock it the hell off.

Patriotism is not a feeling in America. You cannot base your pride of being an American based on your political party affiliation ala Michelle Obama. Nor should you make political parties and the people in them your “gods”.

Patriotism is not a feeling nor should it ever be about feelings. Patriotism is a way of life. And, our small towns in “po-dunk” are evidently so much better at this than our coastal cities and liberal suburbs. Love God, love family, be a nice human and be thankful for the blessings, great and small. So, to those who see the Stars and Stripes and are triggered by them, who think they are some form of “oppression” and who set out to burn them on our streets, I will say this. YOU are part of the problem. I will not be the one here to tell you to show yourself out. In America, the choice is yours but if you feel you must, please make no haste.

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