Celebrate America. And Be Loud About It.

The United States of America is a good country.

The philosophy that animates our institutions is fundamentally sound -- and profoundly moral. Because our Founders declared at the very start that "all men are created equal" and are endowed by God with rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," we have abolished slavery, broadened the franchise, and successfully torn down many unfair barriers to success. This didn't happen all at once, it is true; it took some time for the implications of Jefferson's words to manifest in the way our laws were enforced. But if you elide the men of 1776 from our national story because, like all human beings, they were sinners and hypocrites, you will destroy that foundation that allows us to see the various -isms as evils.

And in all honesty, I suspect that's what our disloyal, ignorant radicals want to do. Why? Because despite their high-flying rhetoric about "justice" and "reparation," they don't really want to rid the world of bigotry and establish a maximally fair system. No -- they simply want to replace one sort of bigotry for another. They want to destroy our professional police forces because it's those forces that stand between them and their ability to victimize the people they perceive to be their enemies. They want to destroy the traditions of our liberal republic and our free marketplace because they hate, hate, hate that said structures (when functioning appropriately) reward industry and merit and not necessarily their bestest friends.

We should resist this insurrection with as much force as we can muster. And we can start by celebrating America's birthday as proudly and as obnoxiously as we can. Sing patriotic ditties at the top of your lungs. Launch fireworks. Feast on your favorite summer fare. And most importantly, tell the iconoclasts and terrorists in your midst to pound sand when they start whining. You are not a "white supremacist" because you're patriotic. You are, in fact, a normal, decent person.

ETA: Trump's Mount Rushmore Speech // Silent Cal's Speech on the Sesquicentennial