It is a tad ironic that the position of “proud American” tends to be given to Republicans and not Democrats.  I don’t find that to be true.  My experience is that Republicans are proud of American successes in business and in powerful white people like themselves, but not America itself.  Republicans tend to be proud of the America that was portrayed on the television in the 1950s.  In fact they are so ensconced in that version of America they have played a primary role in creating the America that bleeds on the evening news in 2018.

It’d be difficult to find a more proud American than myself and my lean to the left is more than just a lean…..it’s almost a stumble.  But I am proud of America as it is, not as it was.  For all our faults and all the grief we heap upon ourselves there are always glimmers of us being more than we are.  If the voting in of Donald was a view into our very worst selves (and I think it was) than us addressing that in the next election will allow us to learn from a national agenda driven by revenge and bigotry.  There will be another historical lesson in how petty we can be and hopefully it will make us better.

We just need to hang on to our half of the flag and be sure we win because we can’t be what we were and we shouldn’t want to be.