Building Patriotism
Trump Republicans are dispiriting and Democrats are too flighty, here's how to start restoring patriotism
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The July 4th weekend is usually one I look forward to every year. It’s an opportunity to look back and look forward, to appreciate the American experiment and to commit to a more perfect union sometime in the future. It didn’t feel like that to me this year, and it was a unique feeling. This was the first time in memory that I didn’t rush out to fly the flag.
Or so I thought. The more people I spoke with, Left, Center, Right, the more people felt this 249th celebration of our country to be more complicated. I have a close friend who has a transgender child, who is struggling with the near-universal attacks, whether they come from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, or down the block in both chambers of Congress, and now even at the Supreme Court.
I have college friends, who even 30+ years later remain my closest, feeling simultaneously good about certain tax breaks they’re going to get this year, and terrible about who is going to pay the cost, as well as the long-term debt. It seems like yesterday that we were all rooting for a smaller, smarter, and more efficient government. Now that the unpopular One Big Beautiful Bill has been signed, we wonder if it’s all arbitrary as to whom is in power.
I watched the fireworks with my wife, as we have for decades, this time at home. The Air Force band was amazing, and the sights of DC were spectacular. But I didn’t feel that surge of pride that I felt not too long ago. That we were worth celebrating. That our values were ascendant. That we were on the right path.
The data supports this in the aggregate. Trump’s presidential approval ratings crossed over sometime around fake “Independence Day” (the tariff announcements) in mid-March and have not recovered. Pride in America has found a new low, particularly among Democrats, which is easy to predict, but also among Independents.
And yet, if you look at the Trump administration’s performance in terms of what they’ve accomplished on their perceived mandate, there is cause for MAGA celebration:
- DOGE flushed many in the “Deep State” if not solved the debt problem
- Tariffs have reset relationships with countries that have been “ripping us off”
- The immigration crisis is over, the border closed, and a border wall is on the way
- NATO nations have agreed to spend 5% of GDP — paying their “fair share”
- The Iran nuclear program has been bombed back at least two years without American casualties
- The OBBB passed on time, signed on Independence Day, securing a broad-based MAGA legacy in legislative form
The best the Democrats could do was talk. In the House, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries broke the record for the “Magic Minute” delaying final passage of the OBBB. In the Senate, New Jersey Democrat Cory Booker did pretty much the same. But beyond two yap-fests, the Democrats have no core message other than “MAGA BAD” and that won’t cut it moving into the next election period.
They need a bit of luck, at all of our expense, in an economy weakened by the tariffs and the OBBB, which is kind of like hoping that the local deer eats your neighbor’s strawberries and not yours. So much goes into those decisions and sometimes it has nothing to do with you, and everything to do with the unknowable decisions of a clueless deer.
Relying on randomness is where the American experiment is right now, and that’s not exactly patriotic. America is at its best when its engaged. Right now, most Republicans are content, Democrats are exhausted, and Independents have checked out of politics until a couple of weeks before the next election, if they choose to check back in at all.
In the meantime, it’s on the Democrats to craft a coherent narrative about what it means to be an American, a patriotic message that’s authentic to the Party and broad enough to bring home voters they lost in the Biden-to-Harris debacle.
A strategy of “All Politics Is Local” so “let everyone run their own race” won’t cut it in this national political media environment. A third party funded by former First Buddy Elon Musk is a super PAC side show. My guess, despite the current generic candidate polling is that MAGA would retain control of both chambers of Congress in 2026 unless Democrats are able to unlock a New Patriotism.
Moreover, Democrats should reject the Abundance messaging flavor-of-the-month. I read it and it is simplistic and unrealistic.
The core takeaway is that Democrats need to do better in following through on promises. If they say they’re going to build EV electric chargers there ought to be more than a 214 after spending $7.5 billion since Biden’s infrastructure bill became law two years ago. As the authors say, Abundance “is a liberalism that builds.”
To which I say, duh. So why haven’t they done it?
The second is that we can have everything we want: “Scarcity is a choice.” Really. That’s the argument. They continue, “This book is dedicated to a simple idea: to have the future we want, we need to build and invent more of what we need. That’s it. That’s the thesis.”
It’s borderline tautological. Who would disagree with that to get to where we want to go, we need to invent (waves hands) new things? This is not a strategy. It’s an aspiration at best, a mass delusion at worst.
In response, let me provide a trio of messages that both hit Trump and remind us of why being an American is special:
1. Freedom: The ability to live your own life without the government interfering in it
The federal assault on our freedoms to work, love, pray, and play are everywhere. Trump’s micromanaging of all aspects of our life is un-American.
2. Opportunity: A level playing field in immigration, the workforce, the tax code, and our broader culture
Trump’s reconfiguration of American society and attacking our non-federal institutions is limiting our growth and stifling innovation.
3. Responsibility: We are in this together, and we will do everything we can to help people in need
Patriotism isn’t just to a flag; it’s to a set of common ideals. The core of it is that while we strive individually, together we provide help for those who need it.
Each of these meets MAGA where they already are and nudges its recent/late adopters to rethink the Kool-Aid before they finish the cup. But to get what we want we need to do this together. We need to move beyond fighting each other and back to working alongside with whom those we probably like but at times disagree.
We need a New Patriotism that is as good as the foundation laid for us almost a quarter millennium ago. The Democratic Party needs to understand that it’s no longer in a fight for control of DC, but for the hearts and minds of latent patriots who just need a reason to believe again in America.
Michael D. Cohen, Ph.D. is the author of the book Modern Political Campaigns, president of Cohen Research Group and a 30-year veteran of the polling industry. He writes The Levelregularly for 24sight News, analyzing polling and campaign trends with a keen eye and level-headed approach.
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Gotta tell you, this was some weak-ass sauce Michael.