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On a recent episode of “Uncommon Knowledge,” Peter Robinson of Stanford’s Hoover Institution interviewed Matthew Continetti, author of the excellent new book American Conservatism, and Christopher DeMuth, noted public policy scholar and former president of the American Enterprise Institute. At the end of the discussion, Robinson asked the guests why America’s big tech companies have their profits overseas but should put American interests first, or at least avoid undermining them.
“Because they’re Americans,” DeMuth replied in four words.
His simple yet profound words moved me. Suddenly it was 1965 and I was 10 years old. My four younger brothers and I, along with my mother and grandparents, attended the Memorial Day parade in Mount Morris, a small town in the heart of the Appalachians near the West Virginia-Pennsylvania border.
My father, who was only 39 years old at the time, was on the march with the veterans of World War II. Ten years ago, these sons of farmers and coal miners helped destroy Nazi weapons. They risked their own lives to protect the lives, liberty, and dignity of others—not just their fellow Americans, but Europeans and others. The “young people” in the march were Korean War veterans. There were no Vietnam vets yet. At the head of the parade and in the color guard were the vests of the First World War.
We were waving flags and cheering our heroes. The Gold Star Moms were floats and marching bands from high school. The procession halted at a small war memorial in the center of town between the volunteer fire department and the bank, where the colors were presented and one of the local preachers offered a heartfelt prayer praising the courage and sacrifice of the fallen soldiers and giving thanks to God. For freedom and democracy.
We’re the only ones who aren’t Protestant – my mother’s family is Catholic, my father’s Syrian Orthodox. There was a black family in the local community. However, we were all accepted as citizens and respected each other.
All differences between us are gone, and we are grateful for our love for our country and for giving us the “ultimate full measure.” The bottom line – the bottom line is that we are Americans. And we are proud to be Americans – proud of what America and its citizens have done, proud of what America stands for. We believe in our country – we respect it.
We were in the middle of the Cold War. The Cuban Missile Crisis happened less than three years ago; JFK was assassinated by a communist less than two years later. None of us were in any doubt as to which side was right or wrong. We know communism is evil and our ideological enemy. We rejected the Marxist dogmas of atheism, dialectical materialism, class struggle, and the idea that history is driven by the conflict of material interests. We firmly denied that we must eliminate the bourgeoisie and establish a proletarian dictatorship. We believe in the dignity of human beings that God has given us.
We were not under the illusion that our country is perfect. Still, we believe that America is a great and good land, and that its principles are true and right – worth fighting for and, if necessary, dying for. We know that when we fail as a nation, it is because we fail to uphold these principles.
Reflecting on these childhood memories, I ask myself: Was I naive? Was it easy? Were we uneducated and indoctrinated? Are we fooled by the whitewashed image of America? Was the nation founded on a series of immoral beliefs and the constitution merely a tool to perpetuate oppression?
no.
I’m still that 10-year-old. I still believe what that little boy believed. I love my country – because it is mine, yes and because it is ours. But more than that, I love our country because it is good: its ideals and principles are true. I love our country, at its best, for the great virtues it stands for and has done—even showing that “a government of the people, by the people, for the people” can indeed “long endure.” He said.
Our political situation today gives us legitimate reasons to assume that our people are trying to live up to and value their principles. Some people denounce these principles as hypocrisy, saying that most of the men who declared that “all men are equal” were slaves. Some choose them and want to implement them in the spirit of ideological partisanship. Freedom is not for me, but for you.
On both ideological fringes there is talk of “national definition” and even civil war.
But I have faith that America and its good principles will endure.
My source of optimism is my father, my hero. Now 97 years old and very frail, his kindness, compassion, courage, deep moral strength and childlike faith inspire me and my four brothers every day. Every year since returning from Normandy and Brittany in World War II, he has participated in the same annual Memorial Day parade in that small Appalachian town, although in recent years he hasn’t marched, instead pushing in a wheelchair.
Every Memorial Day, my father salutes the flag as he sings “The Star Spangled Banner.” He wears on his chest the medal he received from the French Republic when he was appointed Chevalier of the Legion of Honor for his contribution to the liberation of that country from Nazi oppression. Every year my brothers and I have to put a lot of pressure on him to get the medal. Humbly, he does not like to show any sign of separation from his noble comrades at the memorial service. Of course many medals are deserved but not awarded.
One does not need to earn a medal for bravery to be considered a defender of America. What unites us—what makes us say “we” in “our people”—is our common commitment to the Declaration of Independence and the principles of the Constitution, which recognize the deep, inherent, and equal dignity of each and every member. The human family. I, and you, and all our fellow citizens have certain responsibilities to America. Because we are Americans.
Coal producers and farmers are true. And it is no less true for university professors and technology executives.
Robert P. George McCormick is Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideas and Institutions at Princeton University.
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