The land of loathing: When privilege breeds contempt

They sip $18 matcha oat milk lattes in multi-million-dollar coastal fortresses, attend galas guarded by private security, and tweet their grievances about America from iPhones made possible by capitalism.  And yet, if you believed the words of the Obamas, Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and their ilk, you’d think they were broadcasting from the dungeons of a medieval regime rather than the freest nation in the world’s history.

Let’s stop pretending this is normal.

In her now-standard tone of wounded enlightenment, Michelle Obama once said she was never truly proud of her country until her husband was nominated for president.  What a curious definition of patriotism.  Not landing on the moon.  Not defeating Nazism. Not the sacrifices of 9/11 first responders or Lincoln’s moral clarity.  No, she found pride only when her family got into the spotlight.

For all his charm and eloquence, former president Barack Obama spent eight years delivering what might as well have been a global apology tour.  He bowed to monarchs, lamented America’s past, and chastised us in Cairo and Berlin.  He spoke of “arrogance” as though it were uniquely American — never mind that we’re the first global superpower to spread freedom instead of tyranny.

U.S. rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn), the walking paradox, fled the wreckage of Somalia, was granted asylum by American generosity, was educated on our dime, and was elected to the halls of Congress.  She repaid that gift with venom, accusing the very nation that rescued her of systemic rot.  She mocked our soldiers, smeared our institutions, and has never found a camera she couldn’t scold us from.

U.S. rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), meanwhile, gets misty-eyed over her grandmother’s roof in Puerto Rico while somehow blaming the United States, not the island’s decades of mismanagement.  She poses theatrically at border fences, slingshots words like “concentration camps” around as though she’s never read a history book, and lectures truck-drivers and steelworkers about privilege, all while basking in celebrity status and reality TV optics.

This is not mere criticism of policy.  This is contempt for the country itself.

It would be easy to ignore these people, to roll our eyes and say, “Well, Twitter isn’t real life.”  But they hold actual power.  They influence classrooms, policy, and foreign perception.  They are, for better or worse, cultural weathervanes and pointing due south.

Their message is insidious: that America is not a flawed but noble experiment, but a broken, racist, cruel, and irredeemable place.  That our founding ideals are a façade, our progress a mirage, and our patriotism a cloak for oppression.

And yet…they stay.

They don’t flee to socialist utopias.  They don’t renounce their citizenship.  They cash the checks, sign the book deals, rake in Netflix money, and soak in the safety provided by the very system they claim is rigged.

We used to laugh at such hypocrisy. Now we elect it.

Here’s a dose of reality they won’t teach in Ivy League lecture halls or TikTok town halls: America is the greatest country on Earth.

Yes, with our scars.  Yes, with our debates.  But look around.  People still drown trying to get into this country.  Not out.  People flee socialism, war, and corruption for the chance, just the chance, to work two jobs and maybe own a used Honda.  And many make it.  Ask your local immigrant restaurateur or truck mechanic.

Yet America’s homegrown elites, who live with more luxury than 99.9% of the world, act as if they’re survivors of some national trauma.  They mistake online praise for courage.  They imagine themselves as rebels, oppressed from the comfort of Martha’s Vineyard.

Let’s be very clear: Criticism is not the problem.  America needs criticism.  It thrives on it.  That’s the genius of our system: open dialogue, freedom of the press, accountability.

But criticism without gratitude?  That’s rot.  That’s arrogance.  That’s a betrayal of the very freedoms they exploit.

As Winston Churchill said, “The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.”  And in the minds of these self-styled revolutionaries, America is not the beacon on a hill; it’s the villain in their play.  Their vision of utopia is not liberty, but control.  Not equality of opportunity, but equality of outcome by coercion.  Not debate, but silencing.  Not earned greatness, but inherited grievance.

What’s ironic, maybe tragic, is how much America has bent over backward for these voices.  We elevated them and gave them platforms, legitimacy, even reverence.  And what did we get?

 Bitterness.

No country is perfect.  But only in America can you despise the nation openly and be rewarded for it.  Try being this critical in Beijing.  Or Tehran.  Or Havana.  Write a blog post about the Supreme Leader and see how long you stay above ground.

Here, you can shout your dissatisfaction from every rooftop and still sleep safely beneath the flag you claim to loathe.

That flag isn’t just a symbol.  It’s a shelter.  A promise.  One soaked in the blood of the young and the brave.  One that deserves not blind allegiance, but basic acknowledgment.

So many ordinary Americans, teachers, cops, mechanics, and moms are growing weary of these lectures.  They know struggle.  They know service.  And they’re tired of being told they’re part of the problem by people who couldn’t change a tire if their Tesla had a flat.

This isn’t a partisan issue.  It’s a moral one.  You don’t need to love every war, law, or leader.  But you should love the nation that gave you the freedom to protest in the first place.

America is not radioactive; it’s radiant. It shines even now through the fog of cynicism.  But it needs its champions — not apologists, not ingrates, but champions.

So, to those with power and platforms, here’s a simple challenge: Try gratitude.  Just once.  Thank the people who made your life possible.  Thank the country that let you rise.  And if you can’t manage that?  Kindly step aside.  Millions of us still believe in this grand, glorious, imperfect, miraculous experiment, and we’re not done building it yet.

Image: nrkbeta via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.