There are three things that make America great: God, family and country.
And so it is no surprise that each of those three things have come under attack by progressives. Through redefinition and harassment, American understandings of and ties to God and family have weakened in order to advance the international progressive agenda.
That leaves country in the crosshairs.
So some take a knee, and others denounce nationalism.
And some say America “was never that great.”
They march that very phrase on signs above their Antifa hordes, and now it has fallen from the lips of a likely Democratic presidential candidate.
“We are not going to make America great again,” New York Gov. Andy Cuomo said yesterday, “it was never that great.”
It was a purposeful line, clearly chosen to help his prospects in a looming Democratic primary. As New York’s activist Democrats have embraced a socialist congressional candidate who questions whether or not the United States should even exist, Cuomo wanted to demonstrate that he can burn the flag with the best of them.
And in so doing he has severed the last ties he had to some several million of his subjects.
In the words of Merle Haggard, “When you’re running down our country, man, you’re walkin’ on the fightin’ side of me.”
What Cuomo has triggered is rage, and incredulity.
How could a man whose very family personifies the generosity and potential of the United States spit on the United States? His father was the son of immigrants who came here with nothing, but lived to see their son become the governor of the then-largest and richest state in the nation. He himself – the grandson of those immigrants – has lived a life of wealth and power. He grew up in the Governor’s Mansion and married a Kennedy, has served in a presidential cabinet and now sits atop his own ziti kingdom.
And he says America “was never that great?”
Not on July 4, 1776? Not on December 7, 1787? Not on Jan.1, 1863? Not on Dec. 13, 1903? Not on June 6, 1944? Not on Dec. 1, 1955? Not on July 20, 1969?
Not at the Golden Spike or in Clinton’s Ditch?
Not ever? Not at any point on America’s world-leading slog toward liberty and justice for all?
It was never that great?
The answer is, of course, that it was great. It was always great. That on its darkest day the United States of America has still been great, and the world’s best hope for freedom and equality.
We have never been perfect, but we have always been great.
Not just in our historic achievements and hallowed names, but in our homes and in our hearts and on our jobs.
There is greatness in every child born and baby raised. In every mortgage paid and work day done. In the settling of the frontier and the mowing of the lawn. In our churches, in our shops, from the tops of our mountains to the shores of our seas. In the uniform of the soldier and the uniform of the nurse. From the classroom to the boardroom to the bedside of the sick and suffering.
There has been greatness is countless American hearts. From those who marched across The Plain at West Point to those who marched across the stage at the Wayland Seminary or Tuskegee Institute. In the Big Easy and the Great Plains, on cattle ranches and in office buildings. Over plates wiped clean with bread or tortillas, washed down with water or wine.
America has always been great, and always striving to be better. To more fully understand and live the genius promise of our founding, with its belief in equality and liberty. Men are imperfect, and societies of men are imperfect. But men have the potential for eternal progression and growth, and so do societies. And thus has American society grown and matured over years and generations. Great in its day, and greater in its future. Liberty’s torch held higher and burning brighter by every rising age of American patriots.
God, family and country.
Those three things have been the pillars upon which American greatness has been built. But there is a pressure from the left to knock them out from beneath us, one after the other. It is an effort of destabilization, meant to weaken us, to doom us. To change us into something not worthy of our heritage, or useful to our potential. You can’t invade America, but you can undercut it. And the progressive campaign against God, family and country is meant to undercut us, to weaken us and to cause our fall.
And so the left teaches us to hate our history and disavow our homeland, to see the United States as a force of oppression and evil. To cause us to war within, and lose the enabling strength of our heritage and purpose.
And that’s what Cuomo was doing. He was quoting the slogan from the signs: America “was never that great.” He was hoping to draw to him the growing percentage of the Democratic Party which believes that patriotism is xenophobia and nationalism is racism. He was raising in shorthand the chant of the streets: “No border, no wall, no USA at all.”
He took a knee.
He spit on the flag.
He disparaged the nation.
And he has shown what a cur he is. What an ungrateful, egocentric sociopath he is.
The governor of one of the 13 original states doesn’t believe in the United States. And he’s apt to be re-elected in a landslide.
Unable to see that America’s claim to greatness is not a boast of pride, but an expression of gratitude.