For nearly a decade, Americans have been subjected to an intense propaganda campaign against their country. They have been bludgeoned with the message that America is an evil place — uniquely, irredeemably, and hopelessly racist. The propaganda suggests that not only is it necessary to abolish the Constitution and dismantle this nation’s institutions but that even this would not be enough to make America a great or even a good country.
This nonsense crystallized with the seepage of anti-American ideology into the education system. Although there is finally pushback against the Left’s use of Marxist-inspired critical race theory to poison young minds, the damage has been done. Fewer than ever before say they are extremely proud to be American, with the drop-off most acute among the youngest age demographics.
The truth is that Americans live in an exceptional country. Whereas human history is mostly a history of poverty and tyranny, this nation has risen above that and carried much of the world with it into a present of unprecedented prosperity and freedom.
America is exceptional not because of racism or slavery, prominent features of most countries’ histories on all continents, but because of the freedom, equality, and prosperity that its founding principles promised and have since endowed upon today’s Americans. This nation’s very real flaws, and all the resentful anti-American propaganda that seeks to exploit them, cannot overcome the fact that America is the only place generous and broad-minded enough to permit such a resentful and hate-filled propaganda campaign against itself.
America is also unique in that no such large and diverse people have ever existed before. Today, Americans understand and tolerate each other’s differences of race and creed as never before, and they do it in such a way and on such a scale as no people have ever done or tried previously.
And this is just one reason among many why refugees and prospective immigrants from every part of the world want most to come to America. They know that they will be given equal justice under law, property rights, and freedom from arbitrary government intrusion into their lives. This is not something that foreigners or ethnic minorities can enjoy in China or Russia or any of the other countries involved in creating and spreading all the anti-American propaganda to this day.
The founding principles of the United States represent the apex of Western political philosophy. The consent of the governed, equal justice under law, republicanism, decentralized government, universal property rights — these were as revolutionary in the world of 1776 as any of America’s flaws were commonplace in the nations of that era.
America was not perfect at its founding, and it is not perfect now. But as the preface to its Constitution promises, it is “a more perfect union” all the time. It has made the world a better place, and it is no accident that everyone of every race and creed wants to move here.
