Keep loving – As July 4 approaches, Mona Charen argues that loving the United States now feels painful—especially amid criticism of the current president and the political appropriation of patriot symbols by the MAGA movement—while also insisting Americans still have real r
The closer July 4 gets, the more it hurts.
Mona Charen writes that love for the country is “deep-dyed” in her soul. but that turning the semiquincentennial anniversary over in her mind still brings a surge of mixed feelings. She says the right—“and not just the MAGA right”—responds to any discomfort about the anniversary with what she describes as knee-jerk vituperation. pointing to Matthew Hennessey’s recent accusation that Robert De Niro “hating America.”.
Charen asks what De Niro had done to deserve such a verdict. She says the actor’s alleged offense was trying to offer “counter-programming” to what Hennessey called the “star-spangled UFC spectacle” on the White House lawn.
In her telling. that sets up the central contradiction: people who say the White House spectacle was demeaning to the country are treated as if they must hate America. Charen describes that as a “Trumpian” logic—one where Donald Trump routinely accuses critics. judges who rule against him. and even members of the Supreme Court of “hating” or attempting to destroy America.
She then leans on De Niro’s explanation for why patriotism is “sticking in some of our throats right now.” She quotes De Niro at length. describing his argument that the country isn’t “so lovable” because it has engaged in “stupid and inhumane wars. ” killing “thousands of innocents” and contributing to the deaths and suffering of millions more. while also taking health care away from “millions of people” and using that money to enrich “their pals in the Trump-Epstein class.”.
Charen’s excerpt continues with De Niro’s claim that the country sends out “masked militias to shoot citizens in the streets. ” torture neighbors. and “separate families.” She also includes De Niro’s view that the nation can’t be loved while it’s led by “a racist. misogynist. xenophobic tyrant. ” and his statement that he can’t love a country led by “Donald Trump and his sycophant Congress.”.
De Niro. as quoted by Charen. says that for most of his life he did love his country. describing the United States as welcoming his immigrant ancestors and giving him. his family. and fellow citizens “rich opportunities” and “extraordinary freedoms.” The quote ends with De Niro saying he wants to “love my country again” and “want my country back.”.
Charen says she doesn’t know where De Niro stands on many political issues and that she “may disagree with him on some policy matters.” But she writes that his despair about the current version of America “resonates” with her and with “millions of other Americans.”
She also draws a sharp contrast: she argues Hennessey’s decision to condemn De Niro’s protest while implicitly celebrating the “degrading spectacle” Trump put on for his birthday at the White House lawn is “upside down.” In Charen’s view. it is “our very reverence for the country” that makes the tawdry circus feel so offensive.
Then she escalates her list of grievances. She writes that it is difficult to love America when a leader threatens neighbors. “fawns over dictators. ” attempts to overturn an election. terrifies and tortures immigrants. “trashes the Constitution. ” and says the greatest threat to the country is the “enemy within.” She adds that the president enjoys the murder of critics like Rob Reiner. “pillages the treasury to enrich himself and his family. ” “sics prosecutors on his critics while pardoning his allies. ” and attempts to use government power to “co-opt or silence the press.”.
Charen says the administration defunds “lifesaving foreign aid” while offering asylum only to “white South Africans.” She writes that Trump “commits multiple murders in the Caribbean. ” cannot complete an English sentence. and starts wars he cannot finish—depicting him as “a vainglorious idiot” too absorbed in his own myths to take advice.
The pain, she says, isn’t only about policy. She writes that it’s painful to look at the flag with mixed feelings. especially because the MAGA crowd has made the flag its symbol. She argues that the irony is hard to ignore: she points to the fact that people who used poles with American flags attached as spears against policemen at the Capitol on Jan. 6 have the gall to drape themselves in it today. Displaying the flag. she writes. “almost seems to require an explanation. ” and she suggests a possible slogan under it: “Pro-America. anti-MAGA.”.
To illustrate her point about reclaiming patriotism, Charen mentions an idea she says she heard recently for a T-shirt featuring the face of Pope Leo with the tagline “American. We Don’t All Suck.”
Yet Charen says she departs from De Niro on one crucial point. Even as she says the country may be in mourning for what the Republican Party has done over the past decade. she argues Americans can still love the country—like loving “a dysfunctional relative.” You may hate what they do. she writes. but you keep trying to help.
She lays out what she calls “much to love about America.” She cites the nation’s gift to the world of ideas in the Declaration of Independence and says its physical beauty is obvious.
She also includes public opinion figures she says help reveal how many Americans feel. She writes that roughly 62% of American adults disapprove of Trump. She calculates that 62% of “270 million American adults” is “more than 167 million people. ” which she says is a population larger than that of the world’s ninth biggest country if it were its own nation. She adds that 59% of American adults believe he is a “potentially dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy.”.
Charen writes that despite backsliding. the United States remains the country with the greatest scope for free expression in the world. saying no other country protects free speech. religious freedom. or free association as vigorously as the United States. She notes that she considers these rights “under threat. ” but adds that she sees evidence people are noticing: she writes that a majority in a recent Public Religion Research Institute survey agreed with the statement. “Today we are in real danger of losing important democratic rights and freedoms we have had in this country.” She says whether people will act on that fear remains to be seen.
She also writes that the United States remains one of the most charitable nations on Earth, saying “Indonesia is No. 1, in case you were wondering.”
Her case continues with immigration and pluralism. Charen says Americans overwhelmingly welcome and accept people of all backgrounds as full and equal citizens—not because “elites” forced it. She cites PRRI survey findings that 77% of Americans want the United States to be a nation made up of people from all over the globe. while 20% want a nation made up only of those of Western European origin. She writes that 64% prefer America be a nation with people belonging to a variety of religious faiths. while 34% want a nation primarily of Christians.
She also points to federalism, saying the federal system serves as a bulwark against centralized power and, critically, makes it difficult to steal elections. She adds that elections are “deeply baked into our DNA” because the United States is the world’s oldest continually functioning democracy.
Charen says it’s worth remembering what happened to Viktor Orban: she writes that when people can vote—even if their leader has attempted to thwart democracy in “hundreds of ways”—people still rule.
She concludes this sweep of what she sees as American durability by arguing the country has repeatedly corrected itself. She cites the expansion of suffrage from white property owners to all white men. then to Black men. and finally women; she says slavery was obliterated by the Civil War; and she writes that the greed and peculation of the Gilded Age gave way to the progressive era. She also notes that McCarthy’s bullying was rebuked by Congress and that Nixon’s crimes were followed by government reforms.
Still, she acknowledges uncertainty. She writes that it’s possible the nation has crested and is now in permanent decline. quoting Shakespeare: “There is a tide in the affairs of men / Which. taken at the flood / leads on to fortune / Omitted. all the voyage of their life / Is bound in shallows and in miseries.”.
In the end, she says giving up on loving America and working to steer it toward a better future would be a “tragic dereliction.”
Mona Charen is policy editor of The Bulwark and host of the “Beg to Differ” podcast.
July 4 America Donald Trump Robert De Niro Matthew Hennessey MAGA patriotism free speech PRRI elections immigration