One of my oldest readers, Mark Olson, asks if any of his liberal readers can produce a pro-America ode that does not in any way mention America’s flaws: “without the normal put downs, praising ‘America as it currently is.'”
I’ll open the floor to any of our more liberal readers. But for my part, I wonder what purpose such an ode would serve. Why should we privilege a purely positive portrayal over an honest one? Why should I feel the compulsion to minimize America’s flaws when discussing it? Presumably, every one of us can think of parts of America we would like to see improved–dreams we haven’t fulfilled, rights we haven’t vindicated, promises we haven’t kept. Does sweeping these things under the rug serve any useful purpose, aside from making it less likely that we’ll actually address them?
I suppose I might feel differently if I thought that Americans, by and large, suffered from a deficit of self-confidence. But in general, I don’t think that is our problem. Nearly any objective observer (certainly, most of the rest of the democratic world) believes that America’s problem is an excess of hubris, a dominating tendancy to ignore our flaws, and an incredible lack of honest self-reflection. I don’t think it does the country any favors to nurture those debilitating sentiments, which, after all, can only serve as a barrier to progress and making this nation the beacon of liberty it has always aspired to be.