GOOD TROUBLE

“I love America more than any other country in the world and it is, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”
-James Baldwin

The American Dream
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness?

Every year, as fireworks hearken the commemoration of Independence Day, it is helpful to remind ourselves that this democratic experiment is a work in progress. Over the past 249 years of growing pains, the United States of America has been in the process of learning what it means for all its citizens to be free.

Little by little, the promise of liberty has been reluctantly extended beyond wealthy, straight, white, christian males. While progress has been made, it has taken far too long for the blessings of freedom to eventually make its way to women, blacks, minorities, non-christians, gays, the poor, and those otherwise disenfranchised and powerless. As we continue to fight for our rights and defend our freedoms, may we soon come to appreciate the ongoing internal struggle that is inherent to living in a less than perfect union.

John Cena: Love and Patriotism

Brandi Carlile Performs America the Beautiful at Statue of Liberty
Party In The USA by Miley Cyrus

Celebrating Progressive Patriotism on the 4th of July

National Anthem by Lady Gaga at Biden Inauguration
Bill Maher: Celebrating America's 250th Birthday

Currently, the 4th of July might feel more aspirational than prescriptive. While harboring some cynicism at this time, we must still believe that all people are created equal. We must still believe in e pluribus unum . . . out of many, one. While our courts and politicians seem to be indicating otherwise, we must still believe that one day we will judge a person not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

We still believe that women, blacks, minorities, gays, non-christians, and the poor deserve equal justice, equal access, and personal independence. We still believe in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Charlie Puth Sings the National Anthem

Bette Midler: All You Fascists Bound to Lose

Jon Ossoff: Vision for America

President Obama: Warning Against Cynicism and Division

Declaration of Independence

Robert De Niro: I Can't Love My Country

“The promise of the American Dream requires that we are all provided an equal opportunity to participate in and contribute to our nation.”
-Charles B Rangel, US Congress

“To me, the American Dream is being able to follow your own personal calling. To be able to do what you want to do is incredible freedom.”
-Maya Lin, Architect

Let America Be America Again
by Langston Hughes

Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain seeking a home where he himself is free.
America never was America to me.

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed. Let it be that great strong land of love,
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme, that any man be crushed by one above.
It never was America to me.

O, let my land be a land where Liberty is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free, and equality is in the air we breathe.
There’s never been equality for me, nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.”

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

Reflections on America

Celebrating Progressive Patriotism on the 4th of July

John Prine: I'm a Victim of the Great Compromise

Why is America is World's Greatest Country?

This Land is Your Land: Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen

Pledge of Allegiance to What?
Bruce Springsteen: Critical Patriotism

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart. I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.
I am the red man driven from the land. I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek,
And finding only the same old stupid plan of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope, tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land! Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay! Of owning everything for one’s own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil. I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all. I am the people, humble, hungry, mean.
Hungry yet today despite the dream. Beaten yet today, O Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead, the poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream in the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true, that even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned that’s made America the land it has become.

National Anthem: Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon

Trae Crowder: America's Birthday is Ruined
Americans Are Exhausted By The Right's Pretend Patriotism and Phony Faith
Separation of Church and State
Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen

O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas in search of what I meant to be my home.
For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore, and Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came to build a “homeland of the free.”

The free? Who said the free? Not me? Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike? The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we’ve dreamed. And all the songs we’ve sung.
And all the hopes we’ve held. And all the flags we’ve hung.
The millions who have nothing for our pay, except the dream that’s almost dead today.

O, let America be America again, the land that never has been yet.
And yet must be. The land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine. The poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, me.

Who made America, whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain, must bring back our mighty dream again.

National Anthem by Cher at Super Bowl

Bill Maher: Celebrating America's 250th Birthday

This Land is Your Land by Woody Guthrie

Bruce Springsteen: Critical Patriotism
Legacy of the Declaration of Independence

This is What Democracy Looks Like

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose. The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives, e must take back our land again.

America! O, yes, I say it plain!
America never was America to me.
And yet I swear this oath, America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, the rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem the land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain, all the stretch of these great green states,
And make America again!

Brandi Carlile Performs America the Beautiful at Statue of Liberty

Anderson Cooper: Optimistic About America

Reflections on America
Republicans Don’t Own The 4th of July
National Anthem by Lady Gaga at Biden Inauguration

“I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”
-Martin Luther King Jr

“There are those who will say that the liberation of humanity, the freedom of man and mind is nothing but a dream. They are right. It is the American Dream.”
–Archibald Macleish, Poet

"In the end, the American dream is not a sprint, or even a marathon, but a relay. Our families don't always cross the finish line in the span of one generation. But each generation passes on to the next the fruits of their labor."
-Julian Castro, Politician and Lawyer

Brandi Carlile at Superbowl: America the Beautiful

Mayor Mamdani: Inequality in America

Bruce Springsteen: Critical Patriotism
Trump is Clueless About the Declaration of Independence

The Long Ongoing Debate Over 'All Men Are Created Equal'

Progressive View of Patriotism

Civic Pride in Democratic Values

A progressive view of patriotism defines love of country not as an uncritical defense of the status quo, but as an active commitment to making the nation more fair, equal, and inclusive.

--Decoupling from Nationalism: Progressives separate patriotism from ethnonationalism, jingoism, and "my country, right or wrong" thinking. They view patriotism as civic pride in democratic values, rather than a sense of national or racial superiority.

--Honoring Honest History: This viewpoint insists that loving a country requires owning up to past and present flaws, including slavery, genocide, and economic exploitation, rather than ignoring them.

--The Nation as an Ongoing Project: The country is seen as an unfinished promise. True patriotism means working to close the gap between foundational ideals—like justice and equality—and the reality.

--Protest as Patriotism: Challenging authority, reforming corrupt institutions, and protesting unjust laws are viewed as deeply patriotic acts aimed at improving society.

--Historical Roots: Social reform movements—such as abolition, labor rights, women's suffrage, civil rights, and environmentalism—are seen by progressives as the true fulfillment of patriotic duty.

Celebrating Progressive Patriotism on the 4th of July

National Anthem: Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon

Trae Crowder: America's Birthday is Ruined
Americans Are Exhausted By The Right's Pretend Patriotism and Phony Faith
Separation of Church and State
Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen

Economic Inequality
Rich and Poor in America

“Oh America, how often have you taken necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes…God never intended for one group of people to live in superfluous inordinate wealth, while others live in abject deadening poverty.”

–Martin Luther King Jr

“An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.”

–Plutarch

“I am weary seeing our laboring classes so wretchedly housed, fed, and clothed, while thousands of dollars are wasted every year over unsightly statues.”

–Elizabeth Cady Stanton

America the Beautiful by Ray Charles

Trae Crowder: America's Birthday is Ruined

Obituary of American Democracy by Robert L Arnold

National Anthem by Sheryl Lee Ralph

Legacy of the Declaration of Independence

This is What Democracy Looks Like

“America has more money than any other single country or civilization has ever been able to amass. We have the most powerful army in the world. How is it in contrast to that we also have the largest prison population in the world? How is it that we have so much unemployment? How is that we have so much need in education? We need to redistribute how wealth is given to the people who have done so much to earn that wealth.”

–Harry Belafonte

“We should measure the prosperity of a nation not by the number of millionaires but by the absence of poverty, the prevalence of health, the efficiency of public schools, and the number of people who can and do read worthwhile books.”

–W.E.B. Du Bois

“The disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and the powerful, and to despise, or, at least, to neglect persons of poor and mean condition is the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments.”

–Adam Smith

“Our inequality materializes our upper class, vulgarizes our middle class, brutalizes our lower class.”

Matthew Arnold

Declaration of Independence
Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes

Signers of the Declaration of Independence

Barack Obama: July 4th Message on 250th Anniversary

Philadelphia Gay Men's Chorus: National Anthem

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