I consider myself a patriot.
Not one of those “fake” patriots, though. You know the type. They get teary-eyed during The Star-Spangled Banner. They’ll lecture you about respecting the flag and standing for the national anthem.
But the moment you criticize the guy occupying the White House?
“If you don’t like America, why don’t you get the fuck out?”
That’s not patriotism.
That’s bullshit.
My love of country doesn’t disappear when I criticize it. In fact, the criticism comes because I love it.
If you have children and one of them starts making terrible choices, you don’t stop loving them. You step in. You correct them. You tell them they’re wrong because you want them to be better.
That’s what love looks like.
Countries aren’t all that different.
America turns 250 years old this year.
That should be something every one of us can celebrate.
We’ve survived a Revolution, a Civil War, two World Wars, the Great Depression, countless national tragedies, and we’ve continued striving toward that more perfect union our founders envisioned.
We’re not perfect.
We never have been.
But we’ve always been worth believing in.
America is 250 years old.
trump has occupied the Oval Office for a tiny fraction of that time.
Yet somehow he’s managed to convince millions of people that celebrating America means celebrating him.
Those are not the same thing.
No thank you.
It’s bad enough that every news cycle revolves around whatever ridiculous stunt he’s pulling this week. Whether it’s trying to exempt himself from tax audits, floating the idea of renaming institutions after himself, or turning the White House grounds into a UFC spectacle, everything somehow becomes another episode of The Donald Trump Show.
America deserves better than being reduced to someone’s personal branding exercise.
A celebration of America’s 250th anniversary should have been a slam dunk.
A chance to remind ourselves what binds us together.
A chance to put politics aside for one weekend.
A chance to celebrate the country instead of whichever politician happens to be sitting behind the Resolute Desk.
Instead, millions of Americans looked at the festivities and saw something entirely different.
They saw another event centered around one man whose favorite pastime seems to be insulting half the country.
That’s the tragedy.
Not because everyone has to agree politically.
But because moments like these are supposed to be bigger than politics.
That’s what leaders are supposed to do.
They’re supposed to unite us.
trump doesn’t unite.
He divides.
He mocks.
He belittles.
And then he wonders why so many Americans don’t want anything to do with the celebrations attached to his name.
That’s not our failure.
It’s his.
There have been so many moments when he could have brought Americans together.
Instead, he always chooses himself.
When U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed, the country needed compassion.
It needed reassurance.
It needed a president capable of saying, “We are hurting together.”
Even typing those words makes me laugh a little.
Because they sound absolutely nothing like trump.
Empathy isn’t part of his vocabulary.
The same thing happened after the bombing of the girls’ school in Iran.
Whether it was an accident or not, presidents are supposed to project honesty and accountability.
Instead of acknowledging uncertainty and promising answers, he immediately shifted blame in a way that many critics viewed as avoiding responsibility.
Once again, belligerence replaced leadership.
And that’s really the story of his presidency.
He mistakes cruelty for strength.
He mistakes insults for leadership.
He mistakes constant conflict for courage.
To internet trolls, maybe that looks powerful.
To most Americans, it just looks exhausting.
Even his public feud with Pope Leo over an already unpopular war felt completely unnecessary.
Another completely avoidable fight.
Another reminder that he seems incapable of letting anything become bigger than himself.
This weekend, I watched Fox News anchors claim there were thousands of people attending one celebration while their own live cameras showed something very different.
I honestly don’t understand it.
Why make claims that people can immediately compare against the live pictures in front of them?
We all carry cameras in our pockets now.
Reality has become much harder to hide.
Maybe there were parts of the celebration that families genuinely enjoyed.
I hope there were.
America deserves joyful moments.
But I couldn’t bring myself to watch any of it.
Not because I don’t love this country.
Because I refuse to confuse loving my country with cheering for a politician who spends so much of his time insulting people like me, my family, and millions of other Americans.
Those are two completely different things.
I’ll celebrate America.
I’ll watch fireworks.
I’ll spend time with family, friends, and neighbors.
I’ll appreciate the freedoms generations before us fought and died to protect.
And the next morning, I’ll wake up and continue speaking out whenever I think this country, or the people leading it, are moving in the wrong direction.
Because that’s what patriots do.
I don’t love America because I think it’s perfect.
I love America because I believe it can be better.
That’s why I’ll keep criticizing it when it falls short.
That’s why I’ll keep demanding more from the people who govern it.
And that’s why I’ll never confuse loyalty to one man with love for an entire nation.
Those are not the same thing.
They never have been.
They never will be.
I’ll keep celebrating America.
I’ll keep criticizing it when it falls short.
Because that’s what loving your country looks like.
If this piece resonated with you, I hope you’ll consider becoming a paid subscriber.
Your support helps keep the lights on and allows me to continue writing essays like this, producing videos, researching stories, and pushing back against misinformation every single day.
If becoming a paid subscriber isn’t possible right now, sharing this article with someone who loves America as much as you do is another tremendous way to help.
Either way, thank you for reading, and thank you for caring about this country.
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:
Can you love your country while strongly criticizing its leaders? Why or why not?
What’s one American value you never want to see us lose?
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