Grateful To Be an American

 

By Frank Filocomo

This is not a political blog, nor will it ever be. 

But some things are so egregious, that I feel a need - nay, a duty - to call them out.  

Last week, a gaggle of DSA-endorsed Leftist radicals won their respective primaries in three New York congressional districts: Brad Lander in NY-10, Claire Valdez in NY-7, and Darializa Avila Chevalier in NY-13. 

These three are not the Democrats that my parents grew up with, and, at times, voted for. No, these are revolutionaries. They detest Americanism, and, by extension, Western Civilization. 

As University of Pennsylvania Law Professor Amy Wax would rightly ask of these Marxist, pseudo-intellects: "Does the spirit of liberty beat in their breast?"

The answer is an unequivocal and resounding no. 

Now, at this point, some might ask, and perhaps exasperatingly so: "Frank, why are you wading into the world of political punditry? This is supposed to be a blog about 'the revitalization of America's distinct civic culture.'" 

If you find yourself asking suck a question, I hear you. But, as stated earlier, some things are so offensive, and so rebarbative, that they must be addressed. 

This goes beyond politics; this is about who we are, and, perhaps just as important, who we are not.

Since the beginning - 250 years ago, that is - we've been a people who have embodied an ethos of ordered liberty, self-governance, and a dedication to the pursuit of human flourishing. 

This is the country that my father, born in Southern Italy, emigrated to in 1960. My dad's old hometown, while beautiful (just look up a picture of Roccella Ionica, a town in Calabria), was devoid of economic opportunity, or of any chance of upward mobility. 

My father (left) and my late Uncle Frank (right) on their way to America

America provided my father, not just with better economic opportunities and schools (there were no colleges in Calabria until the University of Calabria was established in 1972), but with a new identity, tethered to an awesome inheritance and history. 

My father, along with a great many other immigrants, many of whom I have met, is forever grateful for having become an American. 

An ascendent group, however, hates America and actively seeks to dismantle it, starting at the founding. 

Darializa Avila Chevalier, a 32-year-old professional college student and victor of the Democrat Party primary for NY-13, called America a "f**king disgrace." 

What's more, in 2019, Chevalier tweeted the following: ""I forgot to get napkins so I just wiped my hand on the American flag behind me."

2019 Tweet from Darializa Avila Chevalier

This doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of this Marxist trio's long history of disgusting, anti-American and anti-Western smears. 

If we are meant to be, as Amitai Etzioni writes in his 2019 book Reclaiming Patriotism, "members of one overarching community with a shared set of core values and interests," then we must thoroughly reject and condemn the above sentiments. They are incompatible with Americanism. 

Sadly, we must shake hands with the fact that the DSA wing of the Democratic Party is, indeed, ascendant. 

It will be up to thoughtful Democrats - and Americans of all stripes, for that matter - to discard the warped, revisionist packaging of America that the Mamdani-ites are selling, and put forth something better.