All my life, I have always thought it was the coolest thing on planet Earth to be an American.
I have been to well over 300 countries and distinct political jurisdictions in the world, and whenever someone asks me, “Where are you from?” it is a special thrill to be able to answer, “America – I’m an American.”
Thanksgiving is a sacred American holiday. Other countries have their special times to celebrate their uniqueness, when their citizens take pride in their country’s achievements, and all to the good.
Thanksgiving is America’s Day, the time when all Americans – all – get to celebrate the achievements of the most successful society in history.
It is a tragedy that so many of our fellow citizens are mired in a quicksand of rage and bitterness towards their country and their President. For them, this day is bittersweet, trying to enjoy a bountiful dinner with friends and family yet unable to feel a boundless joy in simply being an American.
The last thing you and I should feel towards them today is schadenfreude. Maybe tomorrow, but not today. We should wish instead for them to embrace these words from one of their own:
“In an American election, there are no losers, because whether or not our candidates are successful, the next morning we all wake up as Americans. And that is the greatest privilege and the most remarkable good fortune that can come to us on earth.”
You may be startled to know who said that: John Kerry in his concession speech to George Bush on November 4, 2004. That graciousness is in such stark moral contrast to the deranged viciousness of his political brethren over the past year. What could have caused such derangement?
Let’s ask that very specifically: What is it about the presidency of Donald Trump that triggers an outpouring of hatred for America among the Left unlike we have ever seen before?
Liberals, Democrats, and members of America’s Woke Left may very well be enjoying this day – enjoying good food, good wine, good friends and family. Let’s hope they are. We should not begrudge them this moment of good cheer.
But what has always been difficult for them is to enjoy being American, being thankful for America, to celebrate the abundance of America, that we celebrate on Thanksgiving.
Any celebration of theirs is always a yes…but thankfulness. “Yes, we have much to be thankful for on this day, but we must never forget what we did to the Indians and the slaves, that there is still too much poverty and racism in America, blah, blah, blah…”
The purpose of Thanksgiving is to be thankful for being American. This is the day to celebrate the goodness of our country – the moral goodness, the moral decency of American institutions, American history, and the character of the American people.
Without any buts.
It’s easy for conservatives to do this – it comes natural to us. It’s the opposite for liberals, who relish and revel in incessant guilt-mongering – and can’t celebrate a Thanksgiving with no buts.
Nonetheless, we have never witnessed such a tsunami of hate for America, its history, its principles, its very existence by the Left as now. TDS is now causing much of the Democrat Party to engage in straightforward treason by doing everything they can to persuade our military to refuse orders from their Commander-in-Chief.
What has Donald Trump done to cause this?
The simple answer: Trump has triggered and set on fire the deepest fear in the very heart of every liberal: the fear of envy. And their deepest hate: of a man who has no fear of being envied.
See, for example, Rejecting the Evil Eye (November 2004)
“Fear of the envy of others is one of mankind’s most deeply primal and pervasive terrors. Envy-avoidance is one of the most basic and primary motivators of human behavior.
Liberalism is nothing more than a pose by those afraid of envy. Liberalism is not a political ideology or set of beliefs. It is an envy-deflection device, a psychological strategy to avoid being envied. It is the politicalization of envy-appeasement.”
Winston Churchill defined Marxism, be it Socialism or Fascism, as “the gospel of envy.” It is the gospel that Mamdani, Obama, the Seditious Six, the fascisti anti-ICE thugs, the malignant media, and most all Democrats preach. It takes extreme moral courage to reject it.
Yet that moral courage is exactly what a majority of American voters demonstrated by electing Donald Trump twice and actually thrice. Only American voters could be so envy-free to elect so opulent a capitalist businessman who proudly flaunts his earned wealth rather than apologizing for it.
With Donald Trump, Americans chose the embodiment of capitalist abundance over being impoverished wards of The State. Americans chose to laugh at the Left’s deepest fear, igniting that fear as never before, a fear so deep and primal it has made them lose their minds.
On this day we should pray for them to regain their minds and their basic decency. They are our fellow Americans, to whom we should reach out to help them overcome the terrifying fear in their souls.
How could we do this?
First by realizing this fear is what is causing what all those on the Left have in common: boiling, raging anger. The Left is always ISO, In Search Of, something to be offended by, something to be bottomlessly angry about. If that something is solved or made better, instantly they find something else that infuriates them.
What a useless waste of a human life to live in a constant state of unquenchable anger.
Second by realizing there is an antidote to being angry at the world: gratitude.
Living in gratitude instead of living in anger, filling up your heart and soul with the former instead of the latter, would be the psychic balm the Left needs more than anything else. Gratitude is the solvent exorcizing the demon of unquenchable anger in their souls.
How could they do that?
There are many ways, but whatever that is, it must be continuously reinforced until it becomes habitual, so that living in gratitude becomes the way you are, not something you try to be. In that way the anger within simply dissolves, erodes away.
Here’s what I do. I call it The Thrill of Existence.
You may have heard about Owls and Larks. My wife Rebel is an Owl, who finds the peaceful quiet of late night conducive to doing good work. I, on the other hand, turn into a pumpkin well before midnight. So while she is still sound asleep, I as a Lark am up quietly at dawn’s early light.
I pad downstairs to go outside on our main floor balcony to greet the day. This is a very special time for me. It is still peaceful and quiet but you can feel the world around beginning a new day. The sky is turning a shade of day-glo turquoise laced with lavender. In a few moments the first rays of the Sun will burst over the horizon in a mist of golden light.
Breathing in the cool fresh air, I go through a series of slow stretches to limber myself up. And then, as I look out at the wonder before me, I count the blessings of my life.
A feeling of overwhelming gratitude and thankfulness completely comes over me. The joy of simply being alive, the inexpressible privilege of existing in and being conscious of this extraordinary world. Seeing a bird wing across the sky or the contrail of a passenger jet high above brings tears to my eyes.
To have eyes to see the sky and clouds knowing what they are, knowing what the sun and stars are; to have a nervous system to feel a gentle breeze fluttering leaves on a tree; to have ears to hear the muffled sound of a highway with people on their way peacefully and purposefully – all this gives me a connectedness to life on Earth, to the Universe, to all of humanity and all of human history.
How glorious to be a part of this, I think, to be a human being capable of appreciating all this.
The blessing of my wife Rebel sharing her life with me, the blessing of our two wonderful sons and our grandson, the blessing of our all being healthy and safe, the blessing of the long life and all the friends I have had, this and so much more fills my heart to the full. Silently I shout “Thank you! Thank you!” in gratitude.
And then I go back inside for a cup of coffee and begin my morning workout. I do this every day, ensuring it remains habitual.
This experience of the Thrill of Existence, of regarding our human existence as a privilege to be celebrated with gratitude, with pride in being human and a complete absence of embarrassment or shame, is open to everyone.
It will come naturally to you, to do in your own way and expression, sunrise, sunset, or any time anywhere of your choosing. It likely will come unnaturally to any liberal or wokist, even frightening to replace anger with gratitude.
Yet if you help a liberal friend or relative overcome their anger-barrier, they will be liberated to feel as we do: thankful for our country, for the very existence of America. With no buts.
For in these times looming now before us, it’s more important than ever to appreciate, to be grateful and thankful for, our human existence, and all that Providence has blessed each of us with.
