Mainstream Media Sells Hatred of America

Today on Sekulow, over the July 4th holiday weekend the mainstream media decided to try and sell anti-Americanism.

Poising the question, does the mainstream media hate America? We'll talk about that more today on Sekulow. Visit 684-3110. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow.

Welcome to Sekulow. I hope you all had a great July 4th holiday and time with your friends, your family to again gather together. I know a lot of us were in again large gatherings and being able to celebrate America's independence together with our friends, with our family. But not so for the mainstream media who decided on your holiday weekend to throw out all these different editorials and op-eds about how well this really isn't Independence Day for all Americans. And we really, all Americans, shouldn't celebrate the founding of our country and the declaration of our independence. The New York Times writing that a 4th of July symbol of unity, talking about the American flag, that may no longer unite.

Today flying the American flag from the back of a pickup truck or on your house is increasingly seen as a clue, albeit imperfect one, to a person's political affiliation in a deeply divided nation. That was the New York Times. The Washington Post, remember the bicentennial?

That was 1976. Well, the 250th anniversary of America is coming up on July 4th, 2026, not far away. And it says, remember the bicentennial? Celebrating might be even harder for America's 250th birthday. I mean, that is not just talking about issues of facing our country and problems we have to deal with as a country. That is questioning whether or not in five years we'll even be celebrating our founding of our country. Look, this gets to an issue of where the view of Americans, we used to have this view that this was the land of freedom, this was the land of liberty, this was the land of opportunity. And yes, there were a lot of flaws because we're human beings and a lot of mistakes remain in that regard.

And you could go through those mistakes. But to deny the fact that this is a land of hope and a land of freedom and that the Declaration of Independence, while not perfect, the Constitution not perfect, but considering this was, I believe, the best hope for governance on the face of the earth, and to now belittle that as they're trying to do, I think Harry sends a very dangerous message to our kid. This is all part of this educating our kids that America is not, you know, America first is not a good thing. America is not a unique nation. We talk about America as this shining beacon on a hill. That is not the view of the mainstream media. The mainstream media does not view it that way. So just so you understand, folks. And they showed it in full bloom this weekend.

Harry? You're absolutely correct. This is a movement that has taken a fair amount of time to reach fruition. But we should keep in mind that this movement has been ongoing in a subterranean manner in elite universities for the last 40 to 50 years. It is grounded largely in German philosophers, German philosophers who believe that any evidence of power or illustration of allegiance, for instance, to a nation constitutes evidence of oppression, and it should be destroyed.

So at the end of the day, that's what's going on right now. We took an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States. I guess you don't do that.

They don't do that anymore. Well, I took an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States when I became an officer of the court and I became a lawyer. And I intend to maintain that oath and to maintain the pledge that I took that this is the greatest country that has ever been created by mankind.

And I'm proud of it. NPR didn't want to be outdone by the Washington Post and New York Times. They tweeted out the original Declaration of Independence, ripped it as a, quote, document with flaws and deeply ingrained hypocrisies. They chose, remember, America's Independence Day weekend, our celebration of our country that the whole world knows. They see the fireworks. They see how we celebrate as the weekend to place these pieces, to attack America.

Unbelievable. It's not by accident they decide on July 4th weekend, let's open up on the American people and the American experience. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad, whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith. I'm covering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress. The ACLU would not be able to do any of this without your support.

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A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support.

Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, the Planned Parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. Welcome back to Sec CO2. We're taking your phone calls to 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. And then members of Congress started jumping into this as well. A member of the Squad, Congresswoman Cori Bush, wrote, when they say that the Fourth of July is about American freedom, remember this, the freedom that they're referring to is for white people, the land is stolen land, and black people still aren't free. That is from a member of Congress. I mean, this is, again, commenting on these articles.

The articles teed up the top critics of America, like the Squad members, to then say, okay, I've got the New York Times backing me, I've got the Washington Post backing me, I've got NPR backing me, so I can put out my tweet attacking America on July 4th, which usually would get you, regardless of whatever political party you were, run out of your political party. Right, but not anymore. But here's what's so fascinating about that comment from the Congresswoman, and that's this. Look at the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights. Look at the way in which, are these perfect documents? No, because we're flawed human beings. Did we have slavery in the United States? Yes. Was that wrong?

Absolutely. But you know what ended slavery? Besides the Emancipation Proclamation, of course, Abe Lincoln. But then the equality movement was relying on the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution. That is the basis upon which Thurgood Marshall, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Due Process Clause, the Equal Protection Clause, of what? Of that U.S. Constitution that we swore as lawyers to affirm and uphold.

And as did Thurgood Marshall, who later became a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. So the same document that they're now saying is so horrible was actually the basis for creating these rights under that Constitution, Harry. I think that is true. I also think, though, that it's very, very imperative to keep in mind that it's the elites who want to destroy the United States.

It's the elites that dislike the individuals who live in what might be called flyover country. And so any demonstration of allegiance to the flag, to the Constitution, they are prepared to dismiss. They also believe in the notion of what might be called original sin. And for many of the liberals, many of the elites, the original sin is slavery. But it's also important to keep in mind that there is more slavery in the world today than there ever was during the ascendancy of slavery in the United States. And so if you look at the 1619 Project, which was started by one of the editors at The New York Times, she is now a tenured professor at the University of North Carolina without any real, in my opinion, academic credentials.

Why? Because the elites at that particular university, they want to elevate an individual who wants to stick her finger in the eye of the United States and its founding. And yet, at the same time, these individuals, these elites, they refuse to condemn the slavery that is really going on in China.

They refuse to condemn the slavery, for instance, that continues in Africa. So at the end of the day, we have a leftist group of individuals who are bound and determined ultimately to destroy the United States. They want a new framing, a new constitution, and a new bill of rights.

No, I think, listen, what it does is it encourages those politicians who like to speak out against America. I mean, you know, this is how Maxine Waters wrote. So they're telling their constituents, predominantly African American constituents from Maxine Waters, don't celebrate this day. Don't celebrate America. I mean, this is what she wrote, July 4th, and so the Declaration of Independence says all men are created equal.

Equal to what? What men? Only white men. Isn't it something that they wrote this in 1776 when African Americans were enslaved? They weren't thinking about us then, but were thinking about us now. Again, I think it misses that point that these founding documents, the Declaration of Independence, laid the framework for the civil rights movement. It was not perfect. No one ever says that. No one has taught that. No one has ever been taught America is 100% perfect. I mean, I don't think anybody, it doesn't matter where you grew up, you learned about slavery. You learned about how there were wrongs and declaring all men equal, but not even women were not even equal at that point.

So what did that mean? But again, there was a constitutional process. You could use these amendments, you could use the Constitution to ultimately seek your own rights and justice for everyone. It's something you said, which is the Constitution is the framework upon which equality has been built in our system of government.

I'm going to say that again. The Constitution is the framework, it's the foundation of which our liberties and freedoms and equality came to exist in the United States. A perfect union?

No. We strive to be a more perfect union. But the idea that the Constitution should not be celebrated and the Declaration of Independence not being celebrated misses the entire point. Because can I ask a question to all these critics of the United States? What country would you rather live in than the United States of America today? What country would you rather live in than the United States of America today? Andy, I think they forget the foundation of the Constitution and the declaration of independence are upon which these rights and privileges are built.

That's exactly right. You have to build upon a document and an ideal and a concept. These ideas that were framed by the framers and the founders of the Constitution were based upon the enlightenment that existed in Europe and that came over here. And they were based upon people who, yes, they were imperfect human beings. Yes, slavery was despicable and is today despicable wherever it exists in any form, whatever kind of slavery that there is. But they attempted to pull themselves up by the bootstraps and say that all men, yes, and they use the term men, enthropy, a Greek word meaning men as human beings. And we have expanded that today and we know that men equals men and women and all others who partake of this equal protection of the law.

The embodiment against involuntary servitude, that's a constitutional provision. Is that bad? Should we condemn that?

Should we criticize that? And then I look at African Americans and the tremendous progress that has been made. A President of the United States was an African American. The current vice President of the United States partakes of African American blood. The chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court was an African American. The mayor of Atlanta is an African American. A United States senator from Georgia is an African American. A United States senator from South Carolina is an African American. Shall I go on and on and on? Of both political parties, Republican and Democrat.

So, you know, Than, I'm going to go to you and we'll take your calls on this too at 800-684-3110, 1-800-684-3110. How do you feel about this anti-Americanism that was so pronounced during the July 4th celebration of our independence? But then these congressmen and women think that this is just, it's an open season basically to attack the United States.

Yeah, and I think it goes back to the framework that you discussed, Jay. I mean, the founding documents are, they secured a previously unrealized level of freedom. And by the way, it's a level of freedom that currently today, if these same comments were made in many other places of the world, they would not be permitted. It would not be a freedom that you have.

And so you ask what other country in the world would they want to live in. And Jay, I think that's the proper perspective because if you look around the world at places that don't have this foundational freedom, that's where oppression reigns. That's where you don't have freedoms.

That's where the strides that Andy talked about don't happen. And the American flag, Jay, on July 4th of all days, but really every day of the year, it should be a symbol to those of all partisan and political persuasions of that freedom. You don't have to agree, but it is the symbol that affords you the right to engage in that debate. And by the way, Jay, dissent, that's got to be a part of it. That's an individual liberty that the founders envisioned and accomplished. You know, I think it's fine to have dissent. I think it's fine that New York Times can publish whatever op-eds they want and people want to keep buying it.

You don't have to buy it. You can put them out of business if you'd like by people saying they're not going to buy it and then it gets smaller and smaller. They do have a much smaller and smaller audience. But it is important to point out that they are encouraging the teachers, the school districts, the universities, parents. They're putting pressure on the communities. And then they also then encourage these other voices from across the country.

Well, if the New York Times says it, I've got cover, so I'm going to go in and we're going to put the critical race theory in the school. And we're going to teach your kids how they're bad. And their country's bad. And instead of saying your country's great, here are the problems that it has faced. Here's how it dealt with those problems. Sometimes it took civil war.

Sometimes it took massive civil rights movement, protest movement across the country. And we celebrate that diversity. We celebrate dissent, as they had said. And there's righteous dissent.

But there's also just dissent for being a dissenter's purpose. And I think in the New York Times case, this is just nasty to be nasty. They choose on July 4th to attack the American flag. If the New York Times 100 years ago would have done this, there would be no New York Times today. No, they can get away with it now because the anti-Americanism is, as Harry said, it's the... But it's a revolving issue. They're promoting it, then Congressmen get protected so they can promote it.

So it's them protecting themselves. You know, I think it'd be great to hear from our audience on this, too. Rick Rinnell's joining us. He wants to talk about this issue, by the way.

800-684-3110, 1-800-684-3110. Don't forget, also, we're in our matching challenge campaign. We've got a win to announce involving a big issue.

We're going to talk about that later in the broadcast. But a nice win at the district court level. We've got briefed, just filed at the Eleventh Circuit defending the legislative prayer.

A lot going on. ACLJ.org, your gift is matched. ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases. How we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists. The ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later. A play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry. And what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. Whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy, and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress, the ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support. Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org.

Alright, welcome back to Secular. Rick Grenell is Senior Advisor with the ACLJ. We're Acting Director of National Intelligence. And this weekend over July 4th, Rick also noted what the New York Times tweeted out. And of course the editorial they put out about the divisiveness of the American flag and how a farmer at a farmer's market was upset because he had an American flag out and people thought he was a nut. And in fact, he turns out to be a liberal.

He's a good farmer, as the New York Times said. But the flag is now becoming divisive. And Rick just tweeted out, they hate America.

Stop paying these condescending elites money. And Rick, thanks for joining us today. I think that we've been talking about this on the show.

And this is something that we all picked up on this weekend. It was NPR, the Washington Post, the New York Times, mainstream media. Then members of Congress used that to also bash America, to bash our founding documents, the Declaration of Independence, and the July 4th holiday, and told people not to celebrate it, that it's bad, that it's wrong, the list goes on and on. But they chose this holiday to again divide, to try and divide Americans, Rick. Jean Kirkpatrick called the blame America first crowd.

And she was right back then and she would be right today, God rest her soul. And we need to be very clear on what's happening here. We have people who do not understand the world and do not understand how lucky they are to be in America. Literally bashing and attacking the greatest country in the world. I can tell you after traveling the world that we're the most generous nation in the world when it comes to allowing people to become citizens. A million people a year get to be citizens.

But there's 50 million more waiting. There are so many people that want to come into this country because we are the greatest country in the world. And some of these people that are attacking us should travel a little bit more. The one thing I want to point out, I do not see the attacks coming from first or second generation Americans.

And you have to ask yourself, why is that? Why is it that people who come here and have experienced fascism from somewhere else and then land in America and they're so grateful to be here and they know this is the greatest country, why are they not the ones who are attacking the flag or attacking America? It's because they know the truth. They know what it's like in other places.

Well, as a second generation American myself, I can relate to that. Because my grandparents fled the Soviet Union, actually it was before the Soviet Union, it was during the Russian Revolution, because of persecution against Jews. And where did they come to? The United States of America, passing the Statue of Liberty. Now, we're not saying, and we've never said that the Constitution is perfect and the Declaration of Independence is perfect. It wasn't perfect for them here either. It wasn't, but I will tell you this.

This is the country they wanted to go to. And Rick, I just said this, every liberty, freedom, progress that we've made has been based upon, in court, the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution. Now, has it always been interpreted correctly? No. But is it more and more being interpreted correctly?

Yes. So here's the irony. The very freedoms and liberties that allow these individuals to post this, to pronounce this, are the very liberties enshrined in the Constitution, in the Bill of Rights, that are recognized in the Declaration of Independence, that we get our liberties and freedoms from God. That's where it comes from. The government's job is then to protect those liberties. So the irony to me, Rick, of all of this, and I think the first generation, second generation is absolutely correct, and the millions of people trying to get into the United States now, is the fact that people lose sight of the greatness of this country.

Problem's sure, we're human beings, we are all fallen. Having said that, the fact is, I can't think of another country any of these critics would rather be living in. I mean, you saw what happened this past weekend, and there was a whole bunch of people trying to spin it. I watched it very clearly, I watched it live. The U.S. women's soccer team, once again, remember last year, the majority of the women's soccer team knelt down during the National Anthem and were wearing Black Lives Matter shirts, and some of them even bowed their head while the National Anthem played, that was last year. This year, the flag was to the right of all the players. The entire Mexican soccer team, female soccer team, turned to the right. They faced the Mexican flag, and every single one of those women were singing the Mexican National Anthem.

Every single one of them. Then when it came time for the American National Anthem to be played, very few, I would say about half of the women, turned to the right to face the flag. The others refused to turn, they looked straight ahead, and were lucky they didn't bow, but they were so disrespectful, and immediately the Women's Soccer Association tried to say they were not being disrespectful. Of course they were, we know the history, we're not stupid. Let me ask this, this is the women's soccer team representing what? The United States of America. That's who they represent.

It's infuriating. I would like to do a GoFundMe page for some of these women to go visit Gaza for two or three weeks. Let me be very clear and blunt, many of those girls are lesbians. They wouldn't last a second in the 69 countries that criminalize homosexuality.

They are babies, they are ungrateful, and I think it's time that we stand up and make sure that they don't give voice to America because they don't represent the real America that we all know is the greatest country in the world. Because in Gaza they threw people, Christians, gays and lesbians, off of the rooftops. And let's not just take Gaza.

I can give you a hundred other examples. Most of the world you don't want to be in as a woman. Take out your sexuality.

Just as a woman it's not a great place to be. The idea is though, Rick, there's also a ton of pressure coming from corporate America, which everybody always thinks is so right-wing, but in fact has shown this woke movement. So there's pressure on these athletes who are not always highly educated on our history and it's not their focus on being a great athlete. But it's like they're pressured into taking this position now too.

That's the cool position. The popular position is to be the one not singing, not acknowledging the flag. And they're getting not just support from, but actually pressure from mainstream corporate America too. I mean, we talk about mainstream media, there's also mainstream corporate America accepting this now. Jordan, you are so right. You hit it right on the head here. And this just compels me to say that more people who agree that you can't disrespect the flag when you're wearing an American jersey, a jersey representing the United States of America, we have to speak up. We have to make it more popular to be proudly American and stop this idea that it's really cool to be woke and to hate your country. Yeah, I think you're absolutely right, Rick. There's always great insight because this is not just a talking point. It's not just something you want to forget.

It happened on July 4th. This is what we're talking about with the schools. The schools go come back. We're preparing for all of this.

Rick, better be careful. You've got an American flag flying on your house there. By the way, we've had those, Rick, believe it or not, we have had those cases where people have been told to take down their flag. I used to fly a flag. I like flying flags.

When we lived in Virginia, I had this big one on a bay and everybody had them. Now we've had cases where we've had to defend people for having a flag on their own property. But we won those. Thank you, Rick. All right, we'll be right back.

Second half hour coming up, including an ACLJ legal victory. We'll be right back on Secular. I'm talking about freedom. I'm talking about freedom. We will fight for the right to live in freedom. Live from Washington, D.C., Secular Live. And now your host, Jordan Secular. I hope you didn't have the fortune of stumbling across the New York Times.

You probably didn't. But you might be hearing about it, though, today or seen it on social media. And let me just be clear for everybody. This was not a fake news headline. This was real. The New York Times decided, hey, July 4th, let's put out an editorial about how, and a whole story about how flying the American flag from the back of a pickup truck or over a lawn is increasingly seen as a clue, albeit imperfect one, to a person's political affiliation.

Guess which affiliation that might be? You know, I don't get into our partisan politics that much, but to think that it's somehow bad for the Republican Party, that it's going to be associated with the American flag and the Democrat Party is going to be associated with what, Cori Bush, saying that when they say the Fourth of July is about American freedom, remember this, the freedom they're referring to is for white people. This land is stolen land and black people still aren't free. I mean, I don't think that message is appealing to the majority of people, but young people is who it's getting to. It's not something just to laugh off.

This is real. Because now we're seeing, as we were talking about with Rick Renell, the media, mainstream media, and dad, which I think the most dangerous part of this is that it's actually not the media, which has always been leftist and never loved America. They love the Vietnam protests burning flags too. But is the corporate America, has started to have this political view. They're bipartisan in the past. They gave money to both political parties.

They gave it to everybody running. The irony, now they're promoting this. The irony of this is, where are these major corporations operating? The United States of America. Where is it stable for these companies to have their base of operation? The United States of America.

Why? We're politically stable. We have a fair justice system. We have good state and local governments.

And we have good corporate law that allows corporations to operate successfully. So where do they, they criticize but yet operate. They criticize like those Congressmen and women, but where else would they rather be? It's exactly what Rick Renell said and what I said is exactly correct.

Where would they rather be? And I think that, Harry, is the irony for, and you do a lot of corporate law and economics, but this is where they're operating. Absolutely. And so I think corporations, particularly major corporations, have taken a page out of the academy. And if you go back in time, there was an economist, Thorsten Veblen, who wrote a book called The Leisure Class. And in his book, he suggested that elites sought to flaunt their status through material possessions.

Today, things have been reversed. How do elites flaunt their social status? Through luxury upper middle class beliefs, which are all leftist. They're all grounded in the notion of the hatred of the founding of the United States, the claim that oppression is everywhere present while they're dressed in their Gucci and other expensive outfits. And so there's a little history that goes along with this, and this includes Karl Marx, who focused on economic disadvantage, and he sought to destroy capitalism. Second came Antonio Gramsci, who advanced critical theory, grounded in his focus on destroying all forms of disadvantage and destroying class differences. Then came Wilhelm Reich, who created a hierarchy of oppression, and he claimed that the traditional family was the foundational unit of what? Fascism. And so it goes on and on until Harvard law professors in the 1970s and the 1980s created something called critical race theory, which is now rampant in school systems throughout the United States and essentially they have captured the academy, they have captured public schools, and they have captured politicians. You know what's interesting is that the person playing the national anthem at the women's U.S. soccer game that Rick mentioned was a World War II veteran that played the anthem on his harmonica. But that gets lost on this generation because they're told that those older generations weren't good.

I mean, if your history is bad, then he represents something bad, not good, like the greatest generation. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. Whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy, and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress, the ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's matching challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support.

Take part in our matching challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We have created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, how it's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. We're going to start taking phone calls now. If you want to talk to us on the air, the number is 1-800-684-3110. That's 1-800-684-3110 to talk to us on Secula. Let's go to the phones. Mary Ellen in Illinois on Line 1. Hey, Mary Ellen. Hi, hello, and thank you for this topic.

It's beautiful. And I agree with Jay and Rick. It's like what better country would these people rather live? I don't see them running out to those places. And I look here even in Chicago, I would see when I would go to work downtown the millions who line up around the block to get into the immigration office.

They wait hours and they spend thousands in legal fees just to, you know, make it legally here in our country. But my second point, our Constitution, though not perfect, it's got a built-in framework of the legislative and the judicial system at the federal and the state level to fix whatever problems that we encounter along the way. And that's exactly the way it should be.

And frankly, that is the way in which the progress has happened. I keep saying the Constitution, Andy, is the framework. It's the foundation to build upon these rights, privileges and liberties that we have.

It is the constitutional framework that we build upon. But, you know, one of the things that I reflect upon in this hatred of America that's shown by the left-leaning press today is my own grandparents, both of whom came as refugees from Greece and Turkey in the teens and 20s of the last centuries. And I remember they didn't say, we have to leave this land to go to Italy or we're going to go to Morocco or we're going to go to Norway.

They talked about Ameriki. They wanted to come to America. And I remember the Fourth of July when my grandfathers, both of them in Miami, would put out a flag. And if it was raining, they would run and take the flag down so it wouldn't get wet. And they told us, never let the flag touch the ground.

It was a sacred symbol to them of something that today is being denigrated and downplayed by this left-wing media. What has happened to this country in the hundred years? It's not been good. Holly Ann on Instagram said, sometimes we do not know how good we have it until we go someplace else. And that is the point. If you had a legal case, where else other than the United States of America would you rather be? Than if I was looking at it politically and was trying to get a bill passed, what better system than the United States? Look, our closest ally in the Middle East, Israel, right? Great country, great people. We support them. But look, their political system is a nightmare.

It's similar to the English. It's coalition-based governments. I would much rather have our constitutional republic than any of these. Jay, our way of government gives individuals, not just elitists, gives individuals unprecedented access to their government structure and to getting changes into the law. It's really a huge part of what we're built around, Jay. I mean, we ask people to join with us to petition their government for a redress of grievances. And Jay, it works. We band together, we get those individuals together, we go to government either on the legislative side or in courtrooms. And we have examples of wins this week, Jay. And it affords those individuals an opportunity to accomplish their own destiny.

I want to go back very quickly to something Jordan said. I think a lot of what we're seeing, Jay, is dissent for dissent's purpose. Look, if you're dissenting because you're trying to get a better goal based on merit, great. But if you're dissenting just for the purpose of tearing down the structure that affords you that opportunity to engage in the first place, then Jay, I think you probably need to look around the world.

We have lots of examples in history at where that will leave us. That is not where you want to go. Let's go to Janie in Illinois on Line 5. Janie, welcome to Sekulow. You're on the air. Hi, Janie.

Hi. I just wanted to add a bit to the conversation. On behalf of African Americans, it's not that we hate this country. In fact, we help to build this country.

Our contributions to the math, sciences, arts, music, all the inventions, America would not be America without us. Now, the situation is if we just want America to live up to what it's supposed to be. When you and African Americans are the true patriots, I keep hearing true patriots, it takes nothing to love a country that loves you back. But when you consistently love a country that continues to show that it does not love you as much as everyone else, it really makes a difference. When your country puts drugs in your community, then has a war on drugs that leads to mass incarceration in your community.

When your country closes schools in your community and then builds multimillion dollar prisons, then you have a different point of view. All we want is that America lives up to its promises for every citizen, especially given the fact that African Americans are blood, sweat, and tears have built this country. And all the advances that we have made have been due to the blood, sweat, and tears of us constantly having to fight for it. We just want an equal playing field.

You know, Jane, of course, that's the principle of the Equal Protection Clause, this idea that we are all equal under the law, we're all equal, due process should apply to everyone. And as I said in the Declaration of Independence, we're striving for this more perfect union in order to form a more perfect union. It's not perfect. We strive to create a more perfect union, so it's always a process. But without those foundational elements in place, that perfect union does not come into existence. And I guess, Harry, that's the point, I understand what Jane is saying, but the point that I'm making is no one's saying that this is the perfect, but it's the best system to obtain equality that mankind has ever seen.

I think that is correct. So I certainly applaud the caller's ambition to encourage the unit, the country, to live up to its ideals, and I think we should strive to live up to our ideals. But I also would draw a difference, if you will, between the caller's comments and the purposes advanced by critical race theory. What do they seek? They seek to destroy the nation's ideals. They seek to destroy the nation's constitution. And so then, where would African Americans be?

Where would other individuals be? So if you look at the United States Constitution, if you look at the 13th Amendment, the 14th Amendment, the 15th Amendment, those amendments to the Constitution represent an attempt, albeit an imperfect one, to ensure that the nation lived up to its own ideals. But we now live in a country where elites are basically saying, we need to destroy the nation completely and rebuild it.

Why? Because they have, A, a sense of entitlement. B, they have an inability to forgive.

C, they're pursuing perfect justice when perfect justice is impossible on this side of eternity. And then they also claim that the oppression that many people see in our society is built into the nation's DNA and its constitution. And I think that is a false narrative.

But guess what? At the end of the day, who are the individuals pushing this particular approach most vociferously? It's not African Americans. It's upper middle class white Americans who basically dislike the country.

And so I think at the end of the day, yes, we must strive to live up to our ideals, but we also must always keep in mind that we are an imperfect nation and we will continue to be so. Yeah, I think that Harry sums up everything right and that a lot of this goes back to, it's not, this was not an issue that was really, I think, happening in the African American community without this pressure coming from corporate America and the media to say, this is how you should be acting. This is how you should be feeling. You should not like the country right now. You're not, the justice is not being done. And court systems don't work. The legal process doesn't work. And this country will never work for you. So it's not worth, you know, trying to fix it.

You just have to tear it down and restart. Instead of acknowledging the accomplishments along the way of a relatively young country, when you look at world history, still a young country where you're talking about what it would be like to celebrate our 250th anniversary. That's nothing to most of the majority of the world and yet they still are far behind where the United States is when it comes to equality between all of us for very different kinds of equality. Whether it's based off race, sex, gender, your sexuality, all of that is better than anywhere else in the world. And it constantly is improving.

Again, it's a place welcomed for all, it's not perfect, but it constantly, it's trying to get there. Because we have those foundational elements in place within our constitutions, our founding documents that allows for that more perfect union to be established. And I think we're cheating history here by not acknowledging that, in fact, those very documents are the very reasons we've been able to make progress in these areas.

That's right. It is those documents, those so-called pieces of paper that people from the left simply discount as something unimportant upon which our courts and our legislatures have built the rights and privileges and immunities that all people have. And that yes, we are imperfect, but we're striving toward perfection.

That's what our Preamble says, in order to create a more perfect union, knowing that we're not perfect, but striving to become and to attain that perfection. Last segment's coming up, we'll take your calls and comments and get those in on any of the social media platforms. You all call us at 1-800-684-3110. And everybody, don't forget the matching challenge campaign that is now going for the month of July.

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They've come in through social media. John on YouTube wrote in, if the left hates America so much, is that why they try to blame things like climate change for mass migration? The idea, again, I think that we as a country, it's a great example of another issue. Climate change, for instance, and just our environment and the air that we breathe, the cleanness of our water, we are still a leading country. Even though we are a massive industrial country, we're still a leading country when it comes to clean air. It doesn't mean we don't have big cities, it doesn't mean we don't have pollution, and we do make a lot of trash in the United States of America because we consume a lot, which is, again, part of our economic experience. And yet, you go to other major economic powers and it looks like you're back in the industrial revolution. It looks like the air is dirty, so we're getting that right in the United States of America as well as leading the world.

We don't have to be part of the Paris deal, we're already doing it. We do it for our own people, for our own health. So I think the irony of all of this, and if you kind of boil it down here in the last segment of our broadcast, is that this anti-Americanism, I think, is a political reaction to the last administrations putting America first. And as Harry calls it, the elites of this country didn't like that sounded too much pro-America. But yet, we are the bastion of freedom.

We are the shining city on the hill. We're not perfect, but we do have the foundational elements to be a more perfect union. I keep saying that because everybody's forgetting what our documents actually say. I think it's tragic that we've reached a point where it's acceptable to be anti-American. Now, we live in America, so guess what you get to be? Anti-American. Because it's a free country, we don't penalize you for that. I think it's disrespectful, I think it's wrong, I think we need to be teaching our young people about the real history here, what was really going on, and what has gone on, and that includes all the history, with all the warts. But don't trade this for someplace else.

No, don't trade it for anyplace else, because this is where it is. This is where our ancestors, at least my ancestors, came in order to find opportunity and to flee tyranny. This is the country that they chose, of all the countries they could have chosen, when they were fleeing oppression, when they were fleeing wars, poverty, hunger, stress, anxiety, depression, they came to the United States. There was a film that was made in the 50s called America, America, and it was about the journey of a young man from Turkey, and he wanted to go to the United States.

He didn't want to go anywhere else, that's all he heard, and he came as a shoeshine boy in New York City, and he built himself up to have a tremendous empire of businesses through his own efforts. Where else can you do this but in the United States? And yet the woke left today says, no, this is a horrible country, this is a terrible country. If you fly your flag from a pickup truck, that tells you something. All it tells me is that you're an American.

What's wrong with that? And the particular farmer was liberal, so there you go. Constance on Facebook wrote in, we're all imperfect beings and we should, and hopefully do, strive to be better human beings every day. Living and dwelling in the past does not allow for forward movement and growth. Building on our history is the key.

I think that's the difference. Living in the past versus understanding your history and building on it is different. Living in the past, every one of us could pick a moment in this history, some more extreme than others, where the group that we're associated with was treated differently, treated wrongly, not given the full experience of being an American and had to fight for that and fight in the courts for that, fight for that politically.

Everyone can do that and listen, it's different degrees. Some went through much harder experiences. But again, it is that difference between living in the past versus understanding history and moving forward.

Yeah, I think that's right. And again, this build-on approach. And you mentioned the petitioning the government for redress of agreements. That's in the Bill of Rights. And we do that. That's how things change. That's how things historically change.

And you know what? In the 200-plus year history of our country, you still petition the government for redress of agreements. That gives you access to the government, Jay. I mean, look, I just think if you're not trying to actually build up the country with your engagement, then of course it makes sense that you would support policies that weaken America. I think long term, though, Jay, I really think this backfires.

And this goes back to the call that we got from Janie. Look, it's a good thing to empathize with the perspective of those who have a different lived experience than us and then to pursue policy changes accordingly. But Jay, the solution is never to tear down the very framework by which you gain access to achieve those changes. If you tear down that structure, then the lived experience that you have that you think might be a disadvantage to you, Jay, you'll never be able to fix that. We can fix that better here than anywhere else in the world.

True. Let's go back to the folks, Jan, in New York on Line 1. Hey, Jan, welcome to Sekulow.

You're on the air. Yes, hi. Yeah, I was just listening to the lady that was speaking previously, and she was saying we. We just want. And the thing is that I understand that we are individuals, okay? Every black person is an individual. Every white person is an individual. Okay, every Indian person is an individual, you know, and to not group us all together with this this my this united mind that we all want to destroy this nation. You know that we are all thinking the same thing that these what these people are doing. You know, I am in strong disagreement with what these crazy people are doing is obvious. You know that you know that they are not right, you know, so but the thing is that because of the silence of a lot of the black people that it seems like we are in agreement with it. We're not all in agreement with that. No, you know, no, I think anytime you cast a group of people from the same faith background or the same racial background or whatever it might be and say it's monolithic. You're making a big mistake. This is not groups of people, maybe groups of people, but they are far from monolithic. I think you're right Jay. It's very very important to keep in mind some basic statistics.

So the greatest gift that I have ever received from my dad was that he helped raised us. And if you actually look at the statistics and intact American African American family does as well or better than individuals from any other ethnic group in the United States, but yet the Black Lives Matter movement. What do they support? They support the destruction of intact African American families. And so if we follow the data, and if we actually implement the Black Lives Matter approach, basically what that means is that that will ensure that fewer black Americans will do well in the United States. But at the end of the day, we should also keep in mind that the elites who run the Black Lives Matter movement will do better. And I think that is the quintessential problem we have to face.

Yeah, this issue of the pressure everyone is under. So if you're African American, it's the pressure coming at you from celebrities, from cultural leaders, influential people, politicians telling you this is what you need to believe. You need to be protesting this, you need to be feeling this. And by the way, white America and the rest of America, you also need to be embracing this as well. And you're hearing it when it comes from the media, corporations and politics, and sometimes your faith leaders as well.

That's a lot to push back on. Which is why we're here and saying no, today, after we've all had this holiday, we don't have to be ashamed to celebrate Independence Day. We don't have to be ashamed to celebrate the United States of America.

And for goodness sakes, none of us should ever feel ashamed to be Americans. We will talk to you tomorrow on Secular. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20. A $50 gift becomes $100. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org.