What better day than this, the Fourth of July, a holiday commemorating the successful (unless you like treacle) outcome of rebellion and revolution, celebrating independence for a whole people from snooty elites in questionable attire who would keep them down by tax or by gallows. I'm proud to be writing the first entry in my first blog on this holiday that has always been my favorite.

I'm not much of a nationalist.

I don't go in for flag waving or allegiance pledging as a matter of principle. I recognize the stereotypical 'ugly American' abroad and I can even understand the disdain that some Europeans have for some Americans in their midst. When I hear that a plane crashes in, say, Turkey, I don't breathe a sigh of relief when I next hear reported there were no Americans on board. I don't even particularly think that "outsiders" should not be welcome here.

But I am an American.

I love NASCAR and corn on the cob and bleached-blondes with big tits. I love pick up trucks and college basketball and watching Deadwood on HBO. I'm a regular guy with a regular job and I consider myself fortunate as hell to live in a land that affords me this opportunity for a living standard that is, from a global perspective, wealthy. I take great pleasure in hanging around with my redneck friends at a Sunday barbecue, pitching horseshoes and dippin' Copenhagen and washing it down with ice cold Coors Lite.

And I do not feel guilty about it.

Au contraire, mon amie. I am an unapologetic believer in the Enlightenment ideals upon which this nation was founded. I am unabashedly proud of the fact that, despite great odds, the men and women who created this nation did so by kicking a tyrant's ass. I am infernally optimistic, like so many Americans are, and I am that way, at least in part, out of respect for all the people through the past few hundred years who have died so that we can live in a land of liberty.

Some of you are rolling your eyes. Some of you have already decided that I'm just another naive and jingoistic redneck, oblivious to the suffering in the world and self-righteously arrogant in my claims to pride. Uh huh. And a few more of you, no doubt, grate at my paean to Enlightenment principles being the bedrock of America's founding -- I mean, my god(dess), don't I realize that the founders were hypocrites of the highest order. espousing liberty while simultaneously codifying slavery??

I realize a few things -- and I'll speak to a lot of those things in this blog as the months go by. But the thing I realize most on Independence Day, my favorite holiday of all, is that a nation founded on principle is a rare, rare thing. A nation founded on the principles of liberty and individual sovereignty is pretty much unheard of -- except here. I don't need to spend this time of celebration mired in arguing the misapplication of those principles by certain forces or at certain times, or even in arguing the tenability of the principles themselves. There are 364 more days a year where we can tire ourselves out with argument.

Instead, the 4th of July is a day to smile, to reflect, to be glad, to understand, to party, to love, and to appreciate the legacy of our founders. This 'great experiment in democracy' that so many of us love, that so many others hate, and to which so many others around the world aspire and look toward for hope, is a country worthy of a celebration of its principles and its prosperity. The feeling I get today is the same feeling I got when the Iraqis toppled the statue of Saddam Hussein in downtown Baghdad -- it feels like fresh air and sunlight rushing into a basement -- it feels like the last day of school or the first day out of prison -- and it feels good.

Gerald Michael Rolfe
http://www.geraldmichaelrolfe.com