This infantile mindset obviously serves the fanaticism of an Ahmadinejad in Iran, the opportunism of a Chavez in Venezuela, the cynicism of a Putin in Russia, or the chauvinism of a Chirac in France. But the United States is resourceful and generous enough to deal with all those. It helps that we know many of their own people admire America and would love to come here.

Whether we can survive the spread of anti-Americanism among Americans themselves is another question. Disavowal of our country’s fundamental goodness, blindness to the evidence of how many people she has liberally blessed for so long, denial of America’s worthiness to lead the world – these attitudes gaining among our elites do constitute a deadly virus.

The virus infects “citizen of the world” news organizations such as CNN and the New York Times; universities such as Harvard and Stanford; sneering columnists such as Paul Krugman and Garrison Keillor; powerful lobbies such as the ACLU and the NEA teacher union; and of course, politicians such as Congressman John Murtha and Senator John Kerry.

America today sends abroad “a terrible message of duplicity and hypocrisy,” branding us an “international pariah,” Kerry told the World Economic Forum in Switzerland last month. With such talk from the man who came within 130,000 votes of being president, the apologetic ambivalence toward America in my discussion group isn’t surprising.

For many of us, though, the watchword is still “America without apologies, America as it was meant to be.” Our land shines bright even as it strives toward unrealized ideals. Not for us the elite vision of convergence with Europe: borders erased, enterprise stifled, liberty fading, birth rates falling, Islam ascendant, faith censored and secularism supreme.

Millions here, thank God, still have patriot bloodlines and a backbone. Not for us the bile of ingratitude. Not for us the anti-American virus.