America’s current political climate may be defined by one word: existential. During his time as a candidate and in office, President Joe Biden claimed that he was fighting for the “soul of the nation,” the very essence of America. Now, as the 2024 presidential election looms, the “soul of the nation” is once again up for grabs in a seemingly winner-take-all election. For Democrats and leftists, the threat of another Trump presidency poses a grave threat to American democracy itself. The Supreme Court of the United States recently ended a historic term, one that saw the continued overturn of long-standing legal precedent, endangering the liberal agenda. And while rising support for Trump has seemed to defy gravity after his New York criminal conviction and other legal challenges, faith in President Biden’s ability to defeat Trump has faltered among voters, donors, Democratic politicians, and perhaps, according to a recent New York Times report, even President Biden himself. 

For Republicans and the Right, the political stakes are no less high. Among Republicans, there are low levels of trust in the integrity of America’s elections. Unchecked immigration reigns as one of the top concerns of Republican voters. And for the many Republicans who have left their party over disagreements with Trump’s politics, there is little hope on the horizon that the party will free itself from the MAGA movement and return to a more moderate brand of “country club,” Bushian conservatism. For centrists and independents caught in an ideological No-Man’s Land, the intensifying political crossfire between the two major parties only serves to stymie confidence in our political system. 

For many Americans, any praise sung of America on this Fourth of July either falls on deaf ears or sounds, at best, grating rather than harmonious. Americans who worry about their country’s future safety and happiness (myself included) might be tempted to forgo any festivities on this Fourth of July. Yet in these politically unsettling times, there is one song that has consistently restored my faith in our country and offers a more solid conception of American patriotism, one more able to weather the violent storms of our turbulent politics.

“A People of the Book”

Yale professor Steven B. Smith claimed that Americans “have been a people of the book from the beginning. Our patriotism has a textual basis — we think of ourselves as a people of ideas.” On July 4th, 1858, Abraham Lincoln argued that recent immigrants to America were “blood of the blood, and flesh of the flesh” of the founding generation if they adopted the values of the Declaration of Independence. The idea that American identity is defined by an allegiance to a set of ideas or values persists to this day. As Carlos Lozada writes in a recent New York Times op-ed, “Our political battles do not center only on who is right or wrong but on whose positions best reflect the nation’s professed values. ‘That’s not who we are’ is our harshest burn.” American elections, more than a practical check on political power, feel like a reaffirmation of sacred marital vows, a pronouncement upon the moral convictions that undergird the bonds of our inseparable union. 

While this view of American identity should continue to be cherished as a cornerstone of American life, there are dangers to relying solely on ideas as the basis of what America is. It’s only natural that individuals who believe in the righteousness of their political values should desire their enshrinement in government policy, a process that means engaging in politics. What emerges is a community where fundamental questions of national identity are largely left to the inevitable vagaries and oftentimes painful crucible of politics. All American identity risks being reduced to politics, and with the stakes so high, there is a greater risk of heightened political instability and polarization. Similarly, 18th-century Scottish philosopher David Hume warned about the dangers of invoking abstract moral principles in political life. In the words of Dennis Rasmussen: 

“Hume worries that when people think that their views, their beliefs, their desires are justified by a principle, then they start to regard those who disagree with them as not just political opponents or as rivals, people who have different interests, but rather as somebody who’s wrong, maybe even evil or impious, right? And so this is why Hume thinks that a politics of principle is apt to be a politics of fanaticism and zeal and ruinous conflict.”

“The House I Live In” 

“The House I Live In” is a song by Abel Meeropol and Earl Robinson and the title song of a 1945 film of the same name. The film, which stars a young Frank Sinatra playing himself, tells the story of a band of young boys who chase and threaten to harm a young Jewish boy, only to have Sinatra intervene while on his smoke break. With patriotic prose and classic boyish charm, Sinatra argues against religious bigotry and that one American’s blood is as good as another’s, with all being Americans. The film ends with Sinatra singing the title song. I encourage readers to listen to Sinatra’s rendition, which is widely available on the internet. 

The song provides a simple yet profound answer to the opening question, “What is America to me?” In contrast to this abstract ideological definition of America, “The House I Live In” promotes a modified view, emphasizing the material and social details of one’s environment as constituting “America” and the basis for patriotic feeling. Following the question “What is America to me?”, the song lists many seemingly ordinary aspects of daily life in a standard American town: 

The house I live in

A plot of earth, a street

The grocer and the butcher

And the people that I meet

The children in the playground

The faces that I see

All races and religions

That’s America to me

The place I work in

The worker by my side

The little town the city

Where my people lived and died

The howdy and the handshake

The air a feeling free

And the right to speak your mind out

That’s America to me

The things I see about me

The big things and the small

That little corner newsstand

Or the house a mile tall

The wedding and the churchyard

The laughter and the tears

The dream that’s been a growing

For a hundred and fifty years

The street, the house, the room

Pavement of the city

Or a garden all in bloom

The church, the school, the clubhouse

The millions lights I see

But especially the people

That’s America to me

Emphasizing the role of material surroundings, community, friendships, and relationships that bring joy and a sense of cohesion to one’s life lends itself not only to a different conception of America but also a different rationale for what we might call American patriotism. In this view, to be patriotic is to show gratitude for and ascribe value and importance to the characteristics and features of our own lives, which, together, make up America. The Roman philosopher and statesman Cicero writes about how specific things shared in common among members of the same state, such as “the forums, the sanctuaries, colonnades and streets, laws and privileges, the courts of laws, the right of suffrage, social and friendly ties, and the many reciprocal relationships of commerce,” constitute the “intimate relationship” between fellow citizens. Among the duties of individual citizens, Cicero ranked our duty to one’s country as among the highest. 

The concept of America as both a place and an idea transcends political lines. Earl Robinson, who wrote the music for “The House I Live In,” was a member of the Communist Party and wrote campaign songs for the presidential campaigns of Franklin Roosevelt, Henry Wallace, and Jesse Jackson. The song was covered by Americans of various political views. Sinatra performed “The House I Live In” during a state dinner for Richard Nixon and at the 1985 inaugural ceremonies of Ronald Reagan. Renowned artists including Paul Roberson, Josh White, Mahaila Jackson, and Sam Cooke, who were all politically active in various ways in their careers, including in the Civil Rights movements and battles against segregation, produced covers of the song. 

Regardless of their political differences, what each of these singers and artists shared was a belief in America not defined solely by our worst political tendencies, but by the insoluble bonds we share as fellow Americans living in community with one another, our destinies intertwined. When we celebrate the Fourth of July, it is not to celebrate American politics, but America in its totality. It is in gratitude for the things we share with each other, whether they be our public institutions, geography, foundational ideas, or relationships with one another, that we celebrate the Fourth. Americans should never forget that the very word republic derives from the Latin res publica, which literally means “a thing that belongs to the people.” Now that’s America to me.