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Let's get into it:
The White House posted a detail from a Norman Rockwell painting called "Saying Grace" along with the caption "worth protecting" and "the values that shaped America." The oil painting was completed in 1951 and was published on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post two days after Thanksgiving that year.
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When it was printed, there was nothing controversial about advocating for Americans to bow their heads at dinner and thank God for their meal. There was nothing controversial about Rockwell, who is remembered for his idealized portraits of American life. He wasn't yet a cliche; his work wasn't yet believed to be some sort of lie about America.
Yet here we are, in 2026, and the White House advocating for American values and American culture is perceived as somehow extreme. It isn't, of course, we get to love our culture, we get to love our country. But a lot of Americans don't see it that way. A recent poll from NBC shows that only 29% of Democrats are proud to be American.
Another poll, this time from CNN, shows that Democrats also have a higher favorability rating for the Democratic Socialists of America than for Congressional Democrats. The DSA, which won the New York City mayoral race with Zohran Mamdani, has been making inroads across the US. Tomorrow, a slate of DSA members is trying their luck with the voters of New York.
Aber Kawas, running for State Senate District 12, says "capitalism" and "racism" are to blame for the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on New York City and the Pentagon. She's backed by Mamdani, believes that Israel is committing genocide just by existing, and says she is a "Palestinian community organizer." Her father was an illegal immigrant who was deported and she advocates for stopping NY-based non-profits from supporting Israel. Her entire platform is to end immigration enforcement and to end the nation of Israel.
Darializa Avila Chevalier is running for Congress to represent NY's District 13. She marched in a rally protesting Israel just one day after Hamas terrorists massacred 1,200 people in that tiny Democratic nation. She calls for an end to immigration enforcement and to police, an end to prisons, to borders, to the nation of Israel. She backs the seizure of private property, believes the United States is a "f*cking disgrace," says American service men and women are war criminals and brags about wiping her dirty hands on our US flag. She is a PhD candidate in sociology and as an assistant teacher, joined the UAW, which organized assistant teachers.
Claire Valdez is looking to replace Nydia Velazquez in Brooklyn. She claims to be a labor organizer because she organized assistant teachers at Columbia University, an Ivy League University that was founded before the United States as King's College. After her toil at one of the country's most prestigious schools, she went on to run for the NY State Assembly from Queens. She claims to be working class, a socialist, a union organizer, and an artist. And she's got Mamdani's backing.
Those are just a few of the candidates supported by the faction of the Democratic Party that is in the ascendance in our country. They oppose American values in favor of foreign ideals. They back foreigners ahead of Americans. They don't believe our nation should have borders, don't believe we should have safety, and care more about fighting a foreign country than protecting the nation of America.
This is why a Norman Rockwell painting, a call to protect our values and to save our culture, seems so avant-garde. The face of the Democratic Party, representing some half of our country, hates the country they seek to represent. The old guard ends up looking foolish in the face of these bright, bubbly newcomers who sound so reasonable when they say "abolish ICE," "defund the police," "to the river to the sea." But none of it is reasonable, all of it is intended to uproot American peace and prosperity.
Libby