(WND)—It’s no news flash that younger Americans today generally tend to be less patriotic than previous generations. But the “patriotism gap” is growing rapidly – and perhaps most concerning is the fact that the gap is most drastic among younger Americans.
Writing for HotAir.com, Ed Morrissey notes: “Pride in America has sunk to its lowest standing ever, mainly led by a collapse among Democrats.”
Indeed, Gallup write: “A record-low 58% of U.S. adults say they are ‘extremely’ (41%) or ‘very’ (17%) proud to be an American, down 9 percentage points from last year and 5 points below the prior low from 2020.” Gallup notes that most of the decline is in the “very proud” category.
Ben Shapiro asks if we’re seeing “the end of patriotism.” He opens his recent column with this observation: “America has a major problem: nearly half of Americans – 42% – don’t believe in America.”
Gary Bauer, who served in the Reagan administration, comments (End of Day Report, July 2): “The Left is all in on LGBTQ pride, but when it comes to pride in America, not so much. … The American pride gap between the Greatest Generation and Gen Z is 53 points.”
How do we account for this drop in patriotism – say, from 40 years ago? We do know there has been an onslaught of teaching Americans to hate America in the schools.
For example, the 1619 Project, which has support from the New York Times, actually postulated that America’s real beginning was not in 1776, when we declared independence as a nation, but in 1619 when a handful of Africans were imported into Jamestown.
For a series of films I made on America’s Judeo-Christian heritage, the late Dr. Walter Williams of George Mason University, countered such arguments: “Slavery has been mankind’s standard fare throughout his entire history. And even the word, slave, in most languages is Slav, that is because the Slavic people are among the first to be enslaved. And Africans were among the last to be enslaved. And the great thing about the Western world is that we spent many resources on eliminating slavery.”
If Americans are decreasingly proud to be American, why is it that would-be immigrants literally risk their lives to try and get here? Why do people vote with their feet to try to get to this country? What makes the U.S. so special? The answer has to do with one simple fact: The founders recognized that our rights come from God. Period. That’s what our national birth certificate, the Declaration of Independence, says.
Even when America doesn’t live up to its creed that our Creator has endowed us with certain unalienable rights, it’s still a good creed. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said in his classic speech: “I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.’”
Since our rights come from God, it’s not up to the state to determine if those rights are secure. Millions have fled to America from places where rights (if they are given at all) are only given by the government.
I believe that what is best about America gets back to our Judeo-Christian heritage. I don’t think there would be an America without the unique role the Bible played in the founding of our nation. Because America began as a Christian nation, people of all faiths or no faith are welcome here. Consider some of our founding fathers and their views on how God is the source of our liberty.
Even the religiously liberal Thomas Jefferson appealed to Jesus Christ (“the holy author of our religion”) and His example as to how it is we have freedom, religious or otherwise. In 1786, he wrote: “Almighty God hath created the mind free … all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments … are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, who being lord both of body and mind, yet choose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do, but to exalt it by its influence on reason alone. …” So, in other words, the state is not to interfere with the conscience. God leaves that up to the individual. Contrast that with totalitarian states where individual conscience is subsumed by “the people.”
Ronald Reagan once said, “America needs God more than God needs America. If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a Nation gone under.” As we observe this significant patriotism gap, it is my prayer that God would bless America – with a Third Great Awakening.
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