I joked yesterday that the Fourth of July was my favorite day on Twitter because liberals are nowhere to be found, not being especially proud of being Americans. Like any good joke, it contained a large element of truth but that truth is worrisome, something that should concern all of us, party politics to one side. Surely celebrating Independence Day, the Fourth of July, would provide a common point of unification for our country as it has in years past. Reader, the news is not good.
A recent Gallup survey found that only 32% of Democrats were proud to be Americans. Flat out, there it was, the evidence for my Twitter joke. How can any American citizen not be proud of this country? The pride isn’t mindless or without the realization that we as a nation can always be better. Even so, the most natural, authentic response to living as a citizen in any nation is to be, on balance, proud of it. Why else live there?
Writing at Hot Air, Allahpundit provides a penetrating look behind the top line numbers. Unfortunately, it means matters are worse than we think.
“But look at the decline before the Trump era began. Democrats lost as much ground on the “extremely proud” question between 2013 and 2016, the heart of Obama’s second term, as they have since. Conversely, despite their strong antipathy to O, Republican pride in being American has barely budged since his second term began. It’s up since Trump took office, but only negligibly. When you look at voters by ideology instead of party the contrast is even more dramatic. The share of self-described conservatives who are “extremely proud” to be American is exactly the same now as it was in 2013, 65 percent. . . . The share of self-described liberals, however, has fallen off a cliff — from 51 percent five years ago to 23 percent now. More than half of liberals have lost their pride. And in this case, most of the decline happened on Obama’s watch. By 2016, just 36 percent of liberals were extremely proud to be American, down 15 points from the start of O’s second term. They’ve dropped a further 13 points since then.”
Despite the media hagiography about Obama being all hope and change, what we are seeing emerge from the wreckage of his two terms is liberal Americans giving up on this nation in fundamental ways. Rush Limbaugh said yesterday that ‘the battle is between those who want America to remain America and those who don’t.” He’s not wrong.
For the first time in 18 years, the number of Americans who were “extremely proud” fell below 50%, to 47%. This development is more disconcerting when we note, as Allahpundit does, that “until recently the share of Americans who were “extremely proud” of their country was freakishly stable despite the political volatility of the times. Starting midway through Bush’s dreary second term and extending all the way to midway through Obama’s, the number hovered at 57-58 percent.”
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This week saw a kind of far left progressive madness seize the Democratic Party. Suddenly mainstreamed was the appalling demand that ICE be abolished, a call for open borders in all but name. We expect such madness from loons like Keith Ellison, Ilhan Omar and Maxine Waters. Here, though, it was coming from United States Senators such as Kirsten Gillibrand and Kamala Harris. Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth worried out loud that such a position would destroy the Democrats in the Midwest. Indeed it would and not only there.
DNC Chair Tom Perez said the socialist winner of the primary in New York’s 14th congressional district represented the future of the party. When people tell you who they are, believe them.
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The “fundamental transformation” of America means for Democrats replacing the current population with another, impoverished, uneducated, unskilled and dependent one. This is the hill that they are clearly willing to die on because they have become a party of minorities and illegal aliens. They’re explicit about this, I exaggerate nothing, and yet somehow we’re not supposed to notice.
Only America has noticed and just in time, it would appear. We don’t want to be like any nation south of the Rio Grande nor do we want large populations from the Middle East who refuse to assimilate into our culture, as we have seen comprehensively in Europe. We already know what doesn’t work. Democrats seem determined to inflict it on us regardless.
This Fourth of July should be celebrated proudly for the manifold achievements that is America. We should be grateful to those who came before and who bequeathed it to us, while at the same time resolving to keep the country as founded intact, in order to pass it on to those who come after us.
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In addition to Alpha News, John Gilmore is also a contributor to The Hill. He is the founder and executive director of Minnesota Media Monitor.™ He blogs at MinnesotaConservatives.org and is on Twitter under @Shabbosgoy. He can be reached at Wbua@nycunarjfza.pbz
John Gilmore
John Gilmore is an author, freelance writer & former opinion columnist for Alpha News. He blogs at minnesotaconservatives.org & is @Shabbosgoy on Twitter
