Have you every noticed that some organizations and individuals can never seem to find a good thing to say about the United States?
Last week saw the anniversaries of the landings in Normandy and the stunning naval victory at Midway. The “greatest generation” saw enough good in the United States that they enlisted by the millions and died by the hundreds of thousands. Those who stormed the beaches in France and the pilots who took on the best of the Japanese fleet did so against great odds and succeeded beyond the expectations of those who sent them. Those Americans believed in the good of the American people and the greatness of the American nation enough that they were willing to risk their lives for the safety of their country from the fascist threat.
Now fast-forward to today. When one thinks of Black Lives Matter, the “trans” movement, kneeling athletes, actors, professors, and outspoken Democratic politicians, do you ever hear any praises of the United States? Maybe I missed something, but all I ever hear from supposed leaders on the Left are complaints.
For example:
*The U.S. is a racist country. The fact that the country twice elected a black president and idolizes black athletes and entertainers is beside the point. Beyonce and Jay-Z just bought a house near LA for $200 million—cash. Their success and huge fan base put the lie to the idea that the U.S. is a structurally racist country.
*The U.S. is nativist. A country that has brought in millions of legal immigrants throughout her history is bigoted because it wants a wall and no more of the millions of people entering illegally without vetting and documentation. Nobody knows how many illegal aliens are in the U.S. but the number is probably in the tens of millions, with $60 billion in remittances to their home countries from the US every year.
*The U.S. is not the land of opportunity. If one looks at the Forbes 400 wealthiest Americans, most on the list did not start out anywhere near the wealth they have today. No, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos were never poor, but they catapulted from the upper middle class to the stratosphere of the super wealthy. Many successful businessmen and women can recount bagging groceries or waiting tables in the years before they became financially successful. Is the playing field “level”? No. Those who start in more wealthy families and go to college have a higher likelihood of succeeding than someone who barely survived a bad neighborhood in Chicago. But the price of what they call “equity”—equality of outcomes—will do more damage to the US economy and individual drive to succeed than any inequalities in the current meritocratic system.
*The US was built on slave labor. One cannot deny the history of slavery in the U.S. But one does not need to overstate it either. There was very little slavery in the north and the Civil War put an end to the practice. And the U.S. was not founded in 1619 for the purposes of propagating slavery. The idea of now paying people who were never slaves from the income of people who never held slaves is absurd. I was very proud of my parents, who felt the Nazi hatred as children, for getting along with the younger generations of Germans and holding no ill-will towards them.
*The US is an intolerant country. Americans are the most tolerant people on the globe. “Live and let live” seems to be the motto of most. They don’t care what you do in the privacy of your home but they don’t like offensive practices and ideas shoved at them—or their children. Americans could not care less about a person’s sexual orientation, but don’t force my young kids in school to learn about your sexual preferences. Americans ask one question of those around them: can he or she get the job done? They don’t care where the person’s parents came from, what religion they practice, or what their sexual life entails.
When I hear the left complain—and only complain—I wonder where they would be better off. Clearly if the U.S. is such a horrible, racist, sexist, intolerant and racist country, there must be some better options on the table. Europe? The far east? Africa? Could these self-hating Americans please give us a list of five better countries and why they are better? And if they do provide such a list, then they should explain why they are not traveling to the destinations of their dreams. The US has dozens of international airports, and one can leave the country without having to give up all of one’s wealth or bribe some customs official. Why aren’t the constant complainers simply lining up to fly off to Australia or the Congo or Bhutan?
The short answer is that they would never have it better somewhere other than in the US. Americans are the most tolerant people around. America offers more opportunities than any other country to succeed and move up the financial ladder. I have lived in Israel for 30 years, and as a Jew, I have definitely benefited from my time here. But I remain an American citizen only. I am so grateful to the U.S. for taking in my immigrant parents and giving myself educational and other opportunities that would not have been so readily available somewhere else in the world. Even my arrival in Israel was on a State Department Fulbright post-doctoral fellowship.
The complainers, gripers, and accusers on the Left do not offer up a better place because there is none. Go live outside of the U.S. In most developed countries, the cost of living is much higher, the living spaces are much smaller, and driving is a hassle that wastes a lot of time. Many European countries are quite ethnically homogeneous and do not readily take to people not exactly like them. Go to less advanced countries, and while they may be cheap and wonderfully wild and beautiful, you will miss your reliable internet connection and access to the luxuries and goods that you took for granted in the U.S. I have been to many discount malls in the U.S, and I see them packed with foreign visitors who are buying brands and goods that they either cannot get at home or can only buy for a large premium. Our son bought a pair of sports shoes for $35; the same shoes in Israel run nearly $200. I have always gotten a kick out of the antifa, BLM or similar mob wearing North Face jackets, filming with their iPhones and driving a Ford to and from the protest. Those clowns who attack cultural sites with paint in the name of getting rid of oil would have a hard time getting to the museum if there was no gasoline or coal/natural gas to provide electricity for their cars.
The U.S is not perfect. It never has been. But for those who risked their lives on the beaches of Normandy or on the seas near Midway, it was good enough to fight for. The U.S. is an amazing country and still offers the opportunity to move up that is not present in most other countries. Years ago, I met a technology scout from a Fortune 500 company. He said that he looks for technology in the U.S. and Israel. He felt that Europe and Japan had little to nothing to offer. Let the complainers see the good in America. And if they can’t find it, they can find an international airport not far from their homes.