One of the advantages of being an Independent is that my loyalties always go to my beloved United States of America. At any point, I will support ideas or policies or leaders I feel are best suited for the country, whether from the Democrat or Republican side.
I have one party: America.
This makes me somewhat allergic to anyone who’s anti-American. In recent years, I have watched with dismay as a significant anti-American streak has spread across the country. I don’t mean vigorous criticism of America; I mean a kind of animosity or rejection of America.
It used to be that sharp criticism and love of country weren’t mutually exclusive. When Martin Luther King called out America for failing to live up to its ideals, he wasn’t putting down his country, he was elevating it.
Today I see something uglier– an attempt to crush the morale and collective self-esteem of the nation. We’re told, for example, that America is systemically and irredeemably racist; we’re told that immutable skin color determines whether one is the oppressor or the oppressed; we’re told that one is either permanently privileged or permanently victimized.
Any historical progress must be ignored or suppressed because it undermines the fixed anti-American narrative. Pride of country is for uneducated fools. An American flag is triggering.
And, perhaps saddest of all, one rarely hears these days about that world-changing idea that has moved so many people throughout modern history: the American Dream.
All those thoughts were swirling through my mind as I took in J.D. Vance’s acceptance speech for the vice presidential nomination at the Republican convention.
I may not agree with all of his ideas, but as someone who has benefitted from this land of opportunity, I was especially moved by his effort to re-energize the American Dream for all Americans.
He himself is a dramatic example of living that dream, of living the principle that your social class doesn’t determine who you are or can be. His mother was a drug addict and his childhood was mired in hardship and poverty, but that didn’t stop him from graduating from Yale Law School, becoming a bestseller author and winning election to the U.S. Senate, all before turning 40.
Of course, he couldn’t do it alone. He needed help along the way.
“I was lucky,” he said in his speech. “Despite the closing factories and the growing addiction in towns like mine, in my life, I had a guardian angel by my side. She was an old woman who could barely walk but she was tough as nails. I called her ‘Mamaw,’ the name we hillbillies gave to our grandmothers.”
Vance’s hillbilly background, which he recounted in his celebrated book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” gives him the street cred to talk about one of the most crucial issues of our time—helping the forgotten working class of America.
It’s a cause that is also close to my heart. I can never look at someone who works with their hands and not think, “our country is nothing without them.” I don’t care which party, which president, which governor or local politician—you neglect the working class, you lose me.
Of course, every politician loves to talk about the working class. But who walks the walk?
Vance’s deep affinity for the working class over Wall Street elites makes him politically unpredictable. He actually teamed up last year with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (as leftist as they come) on bipartisan legislation to claw back executive compensation at large failed banks. Politico dubbed them the “new power couple taking on Wall Street,” and Warren said at the time that he was “terrific to work with.”
“Disagreements actually make us stronger,” Vance said in his speech. “That’s what I’ve learned in my time in the United States Senate, where sometimes I persuade my colleagues and sometimes they persuade me.”
This notion of persuasion is a key American ideal that has gotten lost in the haze of the anti-America movement, which has only exacerbated our societal divisions. An “anti” movement doesn’t look for debate or engagement– it seeks to crush. Instead of trying to persuade, we’re conditioned to reject. If you’re not on my team, you’re my enemy.
Even for those who are not anti-American, it’s usually my party first, America second. That’s how viciously partisan we’ve become.
It’s no wonder the American Dream has gotten lost in this partisan forest fire. Who’s got time to dream for our country when you’re so busy crushing the other side?
I have no doubt my Democratic friends will study Vance’s speech for any flaws they can exploit. And I have no doubt my Republican friends will look for the stuff that makes Biden and the Democrats look especially bad.
I get it. I’m not naïve. We’re all in war mode. Winning is everything. I’m sure each party believes its ideas are “best for America.”
But are they? Was it good for America for one party to downplay for years the fact that our president was in mental decline?
I’m not pitching that we should all become Independents. I’m pitching that “putting America first” should not belong to just one party. It ought to be a national rallying cry, not a partisan slogan. It ought to mean that our nation comes before our parties.
“One of the things that you hear people say sometimes is that America is an idea,” Vance said in his speech. “And to be clear, America was indeed founded on brilliant ideas, like the rule of law and religious liberty. Things written into the fabric of our Constitution and our nation.”
But then he added: “America is not just an idea. It is a group of people with a shared history and a common future. It is, in short, a nation.”
All Americans, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, social class or party affiliation, ought to rally around our shared history and common future. Having sharp differences over policy does not preclude this unity of purpose; it helps it. It means more voices are being heard.
The anti-American movement introduces toxins into the mix. Instead of promoting solutions to move forward, it freezes us in a state of continuous anger and bitterness. It deserves to be marginalized.
Maybe because I was born in the Third World and had tears in my eyes when I recited the pledge of allegiance at my naturalization ceremony, I may go a little overboard with my love for this country—yes, despite its many flaws and imperfections.
But I never forget that this is still the country where American dreams are born, no matter what anybody tells you, whether they’re Democrat, Republican, Independent or Hillbilly.
