In its obituary for Forrest McDonald, National Review quoted the prominent historian to the effect that the United States "has more to be proud of and less to be ashamed of than any other nation on the face of the globe."
That gets it about right.
Indeed, few things are more obnoxious than vulgar anti-Americanism; especially when it comes from Americans who are willfully ignorant of how blessed they are to be American.
The most recent example of such idiocy is, of course, the Colin Kaepernick "protest." No one denies that Kaepernick has the right to sit during the national anthem and spew all kinds of unsupported nonsense about American "oppression." But then that's precisely the point--he lives in a country, one of the few in the history of the world, where you can protest against oppression because there is actually so little of it.
If America were as remotely oppressive as Kaepernick claims, he'd have attracted the attention of goons in trench coats rather than adoring media liberals and would be moldering somewhere in an unmarked grave rather than holding down a $20 million-per-year gig in the NFL.
When you wear a T-shirt with the image of Fidel Castro on it to make your point it only proves that you don't have one. Try that freedom-of-expression thing in Cuba and see what happens.
But the worst thing about anti-Americanism of the kind the San Francisco 49ers' bench-warmer expressed is its ahistorical ignorance. This is because having an appreciation for the American achievement is something of a litmus test for political and moral intelligence.
The United States is, contrary to the claims of Kaepernick and his leftist supporters, probably the least oppressive society in history. It is the first founded tabula rasa on a set of political ideals--self-government and the rule of law in the service of individual freedom--that has since swept the world, much to the world's benefit.
That America has committed sins is undeniable--we can cite slavery and Jim Crow, the mistreatment of the Indians and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, just for starters--but that America isn't perfect shouldn't prevent us from recognizing that it is better than whatever else humanity in its dismal experience has coughed up. After all, the three most important words in any study of human society and governance are "compared to what?"
American "exceptionalism" doesn't stem from arrogance or nativism or dangerous nationalism but from an honest understanding of our blessings and the ways in which we have worked over time to extend them to others.
It isn't mindless jingoism to note that probably no country on earth which today enjoys freedom and self-government would have such but for America's example and exertions--were it not for Uncle Sam, Britain, France and those Scandinavian social democracies so beloved of liberals would be parts of Fortress Europa; Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines would be included in Japan's "Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere"; and Poles, Czechs, and Hungarians would still be ruled from the Kremlin.
Far from being a font of oppression, America has been history's most powerful and determined opponent of it. Even today, it is essentially American power, and American power only, which prevents much of the world from being preyed upon by Vladimir Putin, Islamic fascists, and the minions of the Chinese Communist Party.
Thus, a lack of appreciation for what our nation has accomplished is rooted, at least in part, in an ignorance of history, as well as a lack of knowledge of how people live elsewhere in the world.
Somewhat paradoxically, it also stems from the way in which the founders set the bar so high back in 1776 and 1787 as to ensure we would always fall short--America's blemishes obscure its more numerous virtues because we compare ourselves to the ideal rather than real-world counterparts.
It is precisely our relentless self-criticism and the manner in which we judge ourselves against an impossible standard that guarantees both our progress and frustration over its pace.
But if dissent truly is the highest form of patriotism, shouldn't we also expect those expressing it to do so with logic and facts and a bit of perspective? And if you claim that cops are getting away with murder and bodies are being left to lie in the streets in a land of oppression, shouldn't at least some evidence be offered up on behalf of that nasty indictment? When holding forth in the public square, we have, in John Erskine's words, a "moral obligation to be intelligent."
It is also somewhat fitting that it was President Barack Obama who pointed out that Kaepernick, like the rest of us, has a constitutional right to say stupid things (as if, again, anyone had claimed otherwise). The same Obama who has specialized in "apology tours" abroad and once promised a fundamental transformation of American society, thereby suggesting a less than admiring view of its past and current condition.
Those promoting "change" should always be careful: It cuts, by definition, both ways, and if what you have is about the best ever had, there is a lot more to be lost by it than gained.
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Freelance columnist Bradley R. Gitz, who lives and teaches in Batesville, received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Illinois.
Editorial on 09/12/2016