(I wrote this in 2021. It’s still true.)
This is the 245th celebration of our independence. It is the first in which I have felt compelled to defend the fact that this is something to be celebrated.
If we listen to the forces who have captured the majority of public schools in this country, we would observe the Fourth of July as a day of mourning. Children are being taught to hate our country because it did not live up to some socialist utopian dream on the first day of its founding.
I have previously written about the fact that the central premises of our Declaration (all are created equal, all have God-given rights, and we should govern ourselves by the consent of the governed) were our goals for our future, not a description of current reality. We should not be judged by the state of affairs on July 4, 1776, but by our growing faithfulness since then to the ideals proclaimed that day.
My argument today may not be accepted by Critical Race and Gender Theorists, because they reject reason as a methodology and objective evidence as proof. But the majority of Americans have not fallen into this deep well.
I write for regular Americans who are not afraid to face our problems but still believe in the ideals of our founding.
While acknowledging that progress is still needed, today I share ten reasons why America is truly a great nation—the greatest in the history of mankind.
1. America was the first nation to introduce constitutional government to the world. The Magna Carta was a helpful historical step, but the first constitution in the history of the world was the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. Our Constitution has served us well for 232 years. It is only by observing constitutional limitations that any restraints are put on power-hungry leaders.
2. America was the first nation to protect religious freedom for all. Britain only got as far as religious toleration, which allowed one to disagree with exactly five articles of the Church of England’s statement of faith. All of our freedoms—which have also led the world in their scope—flowed from the original fountain of religious freedom.
3. America defeated Nazi Germany and its allies. We had help. But without America, the war would have been lost.
4. America stood down Soviet Communism in the Cold War, and our brave president, Ronald Reagan, inspired the movement that tore down the Berlin Wall.
5. America is the most generous nation on earth. If there is a disaster anywhere in the world, you can count on America to help. Our free market system makes it possible for us to share, but it is our hearts and our values that compel us to do so.
6. America has led the world in technology and innovation. The first to fly. The first on the moon. The first to mass produce automobiles. The internet. Cell phones. And more. All American.
7. American medical care is the best on the planet. When world leaders get sick, they come to America.
8. America has made genuine racial progress. I have three black grandsons. I guarantee you that I want them raised in the America of 2021, not the America of my childhood or any other place on Earth.
9. America has the greatest opportunity culture in the world. If you are born in the wrong family or on the wrong side of the tracks in many other countries, your future is limited and sealed. While these factors present challenges even here, one’s fate is never sealed. None of my four grandparents graduated from high school. None had running water when I was a young child. My mother was a migrant worker as a child. My father lived on a subsistence farm in the Ozarks. Yet by any measure, I have had an opportunity for success that defies this past. America gave my parents and me the chance to fly higher than our circumstances. This same opportunity is available to absolutely everyone.
10. America has been a beacon for the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. While it would be nice if they came in the front door, I do not fault any person for wanting to come to America. The whole world looks at their opportunities, and somewhere in their mind, they cannot shake the realization that it would be great to be an American. And I was blessed to be born in the greatest nation on earth.
The woke culture’s worst argument is that America is evil and must be torn down. Anyone wanting to take an honest look at the facts will conclude otherwise.
America is worth celebrating. And the fact that we are willing to admit our need to continue working toward the values of our charter—equality for all, God-given rights, and self-government—that humility makes it all the clearer that America is truly the greatest nation on earth.
Michael Farris is the former President & CEO of Alliance Defending Freedom. He served in this capacity from 2017 until 2022.
Before joining ADF, Farris was founding president of both the Home School Legal Defense Association (1983) and Patrick Henry College (2000) and continues to serve as chairman of the board of HSLDA and PHC and is chancellor emeritus of PHC.
This post is shared with permission.
