Check out our latest episode of The Pod Millennial! I talk to Texas Congressman Brandon Gill about the shifting landscape of the Democrat Party as socialists are on the rise and the party veers sharply left. It brings up serious questions about mass migration, cultural assimilation, and what it really means to be an American. New episodes drop every Tuesday! Listen, rate (5 stars, of course!), and subscribe!
Let's get into it:
We Americans were told two stories this weekend about what it means to be an American. As we bought extra bags of charcoal, loaded our coolers with ice, set flame to firework fuses, and donned our favorite red, white, and blue, two men revealed the two very different, very divergent stories that are being told about America and Americans in culture today. One story brings hope, courage, and a love of country while the other was intent on destroying our nation just as she hits her 250th birthday.
And it matters what story we tell each other about ourselves and our nation. That story guides how we feel about our country, about our place in it, about opportunities and potential. The story we tell is the story we live out—let's live out the best story we can. Trump told his story flanked by military heroes and praised their sacrifice. Mamdani used newly naturalized citizens as a prop to justify his diatribe against America.
On Friday, Zohran Mamdani, Mayor of the City of New York, delivered backhanded compliments to a nation he appears to despise, even though that nation embraced him as a child, provided a privileged education, granted him citizenship, and elected him as mayor of her greatest city. He didn't buck the odds, he just took advantage of the vast opportunity America offers.
Mamdani's story of America is one where people believe America "is an arena of supremacy, where only a select few are allowed freedom, where not all are created equal. America, if you ask them, becomes less the more people it welcomes. America, they will tell you, belongs only to those with the right accent or the right trade of skin. The rest of us, they insist, should be grateful for merely being allowed to visit."
And then there was Trump.
Trump told a story of American greatness for all Americans, the story of a great nation that is only getting better. He told a story of triumph, and not triumph for a few but a triumph for all of us. Trump says 'Come on, let's all go get rich,' which is so far from Mamdani's message of malcontent. "We'll never let anyone take our freedom away," Trump said, "won't happen. And all this talk from the communists, they haven't got a chance, not even a chance. We don't want communists in our country."
One message brings hope and a will to fight with steadfast determination for one's nation, to work hard for one's family, one's self, while the other revels in grievance, pits "us" against "them," and claims that those who work hard are being exploited.
Do you want to celebrate our strengths or criticize our flaws? Do you want to feel powerful or weak? These are the options laid out before us in a tale of two speeches. Mamdani represents weakness, misery, and outrage politics, while Trump gives us bravery, moxie, steadfastness, and ambition.
Libby