The story of the United States is upbeat, a miracle in fact, and one that the nation should always celebrate before all the analysis, what ifs, too bads, and criticism commence. It is absolutely appropriate for a nation’s government to begin from a positive viewpoint in educating and inspiring its own citizens. To do otherwise is national suicide: be open about the mistakes, the errors, the embarrassments, the villains and their victims, but only in the context of a national saga that any other nation would sell their soul to equal. This was the first successful republic in a major nation since Ancient Greece. Its commitment to individualism, risk-taking, courage and idealism is unmatched in world history. Most nations have to indulge in large portions of national amnesia to assert genuine pride. We don’t. The world would unquestionably be a much worse place, if it existed at all, were there no United States of America.

“The leftist radicals of the 1960s and 1970s dissented” because they were deluded, stoned, silly and sophomoric. How has that free sex worked out, guys? What about all the drugs? “If it feels right, do it”? Multi-culturalism? Affirmative action? Today’s leftist radicals are, if anything, more foolish and destructive, because they actively dislike their own nation, the Constitution, our institutions, our history and traditions, and have been warped by a rose-tinted glasses view of socialism, a toxic form of economic sleight of hand that has failed everywhere it has been tried.

Donald Trump’s positive view of our revolution is an appropriate and correct one for a U.S. President as a national bench mark approaches, especially when an entire political party’s strategy to regain power is to claim that everything is terrible. Why do so many Americans believe their revolution was superior to others? Because it was. Russia’s first revolution was a catastrophe. Its second was a failure. France’s revolution brought a homicidal democracy followed by a dictatorship. England’s revolution was a bloody mess, though it did cement a constitutional monarchy. China’s revolution killed somewhere between 20 and 60 million Chinese. Cuba’s revolution was another disaster. The U.S.’s Civil War, a revolution to maintain the selling of human beings as chattel, was misguided and doomed from the start.

An 2026 NBC News Poll claims that only 29% of Democrats say they are extremely or very proud of the country, compared to 90% of Republicans. I question the poll, which I think reflects age and demographics more than true societal attitudes, but it validates Trump’s ‘bluster,” and tells me, at least, who are “the bad guys.”