America at 250: Myths, Capitalism & the Fight for Identity

Jack Moore: Never really in the history of the world had founding documents been put down that said, you have God given rights, governments are instituted among men to preserve those rights, not the other way around. So so that is, yeah. But then we have rights.

Charles: And yeah, no one had ever heard of that.

Jack Moore: More to consider, Jack and Charles, two hundred and fifty years. Charles, where are you at with all of the two hundred and fifty year celebration? Are we getting it right? Where's the country? What direction is it going? Talk to me.

Charles: celebration's fantastic. They went all out for this one and I think it's pretty cool. But it all depends on who you ask. I think the younger generation, they're like, no, I'm not really feeling this. You know, the the United States is evil, we're colonizers, we go on and on and on. The older generation, they're more so of well, this is really just a celebration of the formation of the country. And I don't

Jack Moore: Right.

Charles: I really don't believe that the younger people understand because they're not really taught this in s in school any longer, far as I know, as to why this country exists in the first place. That's what should be celebrated as to what happened in seventeen seventy six. What what caused the c the colonies to decide to leave or want to break away from from England. You know, a a lot of it, I mean it's it actually If you think about it, we're dealing with some some of it today. Not a lot, but some of it today. Which, you know, and I as I sit here and think about it, maybe that's why they don't teach it in school as much any longer, because then you would have to say, Wow, they were kind of ticked off about a a one or two percent tax back then and maybe we should be ticked off about a thirty percent tax today, but they're not really taught that any longer. So

Jack Moore: Yeah, yeah. All right, let me see if I can say this in a way that I'm gonna get out what's going on in my head. I don't nearly care as much about the formation of the country as what is sort of the prevailing view of what the function of government is. If they got it kind of halfway right at the start or fully right, and my my concern always because v that whole cliche bumper sticker, you know, that The history's written by the winners or the victors. It's true. And I I had a guy on the other day who's a pretty good historian. And I threw out what I'd heard before from historians, the one third, one third, one third when it came to the American Revolution. He said Franklin said that. Like Franklin literally said that. Only a third of the colonists were for the revolution. A third were still with the crown. And a third were waiting to see what was gonna happen. Like that's But now when the when the glorious revolution is won, you know, then it becomes mythical figures, Washington, you know, the Valley Forge, the victory at Yorktown. We spin it all that way. It's also been said that the American Civil War, which wasn't really wasn't a Civil War because the South wasn't fighting for control of the federal government, but whatever you want to say, there was a view that who's gonna end up writing the history books? Northern teachers, professors, and things like that. And there's going to be a certain amount of these people were traitors and things like you know, it's it's it's written into whoever wins gets to kind of write the history. I'm not defending the, you know, I'm not I'm not saying here the lost cause of this, but I'm just saying everybody's view on things, like the the Germans after World War II, the Japanese after World War, they would have a different view of World War II than we would.

Charles: Right.

Jack Moore: And and I've mentioned before that I was in that class a few years ago and I'm teaching the American Revolution. I'm teaching it at a community college level. And this girl comes out the back of the class, 19 years old, kind of giggling, and I'm like, So what's so funny? You know, something, something funny there. And she goes, Well, I'm from England. You know, she has a British accent. And she's like, it's funny how you Americans talk about the revolution. I'm Well, how do they teach it where you are? She goes, It got too costly and boring. We came home. That that was kind of it, you know.

Charles: For sure.

Jack Moore: And then we kept messing with you, and then we go in there and burn the White House in the War of 1812, and the whole hostilities aren't really over. But you and I both know that at the victory at Yorktown, it wasn't like the British couldn't send some more. They could, they still had the author they had the power to overcome the revolution, most likely. But it was a war of attrition. Washington's hit and run, you know, the whole thing. But it but she said the way we're taught, which makes perfect sense.

Charles: Okay. Yes.

Jack Moore: Is that the British were kind of bored by this time. And they're they're spending all kinds of blood and resources and treasure. And they're kind of like, let's come home already. Let them have it already. Well, that kind of makes sense. You know, I mean, okay. So all these histories are written. What's my concern or written? What my concern is now, regardless of how precise we are about the evangelical nature or the angelic nature of these founders, is what the hell are we now? Like whatever their views were of, but you are right.

Charles: Right.

Jack Moore: Never really in the history of the world had founding documents been put down that said, you have God given rights, governments are instituted among men to preserve those rights, not the other way around. So so that is, yeah. But then we have rights.

Charles: And yeah, no one had ever heard of that. And them, you know, expecting those guys to get it right the first time without, you know, there being any hiccups is unrealistic, honestly. The foundation that they that they that they laid again was unlike any anything anyone else had ever heard of. So you have to give them a lot of credit for what they did, especially the ages that most of these guys were at the time. They were in their thirties, you know, early forties at the most. And they got it is not right. They got it better than anyone else in history had gotten it. So I I gotta give them credit for it.

Jack Moore: Right. Yeah. They're kids. Yeah. Well, I I'm gonna miss this because I'm just off the top of my head. I remember seeing one time that you may know this better than me, Columbia University, Manhattan. It's in the city, right? It's near Central Park, right? I think it's like right around, yeah, wherever it is. I know it's in Manhattan. I think it was originally Queens College or King's College. Was it King's? Okay, right. Okay. So it becomes Columbia University. All right, anyway, when Alexander Hamlet Queens, but

Charles: Yes, used to be King's College. Yes. Kings. Yes. Yes.

Jack Moore: It wasn't in Queens, but yeah, it was King's King's College becomes Columbia University. But anyway, I read I once read what the entrance requirements were for Alexander Hamilton to go into school. Now you got less than one percent of people who are college educated at the time. Of course, Jefferson went to William and Mary. Funny story on that is there's kids at William and Mary that wear these shirts. William and Mary, I'm sorry, the University of Virginia was founded by Jefferson because the kids couldn't get into William and Mary. You ever seen that one? Yeah.

Charles: That's funny.

Jack Moore: That's pretty funny. Yeah, but he did find, you know, and he wasn't a big fan of Williamsburg or William and Mary or whatever, but he, you know, he was taught there. So anyway, when we're talking about these people, it's like you had to be fluent writing and reading in like five languages, including Latin, right? It was some insane amount of knowledge one had to have just to get into college.

Charles: Wow.

Jack Moore: And let's let's face it, I just I saw one of those Jesse Waters the other day on the street. Now again, they're editing this, I'm sure, but they're talking to like fifty people on the beach, and less than two percent, like you know, or maybe one out of fifty, had any idea what the birth of the nation was or the date. How long's the country been around? I don't know, it's like hundreds like a hundred years, maybe? You know, does two fifty mean anything to you? It means nothing to them. They don't what's fourth of July?

Charles: Well. Wow.

Jack Moore: I know we get to have weekend off or, you know, they're they're just spit and balling stuff, but not necessarily weekend, but yeah, they don't know anything. So these are twenty somethings on the beach. Some of look okay. They're getting their tan or whatever, and they're getting their drunk on, but they don't know shit about the country. So go ahead. Talk to me.

Charles: I you know, I w I watch some of those videos and I just hope and pray that they're just acting dumb and they're not truly that dumb. Man, it's

Jack Moore: Yeah. I don't know. I think some of them are real, man. I do. Just given the reactions in their faces. I think these are truly twenty seven year olds that don't have any idea how old the country is.

Charles: It's it's very sad because these people are gonna be taking care of us when we get really old. That's what terrifies me. And they're not gonna have a grasp on anything other than, I don't know, social media and video games. That's pretty much gonna be about it.

Jack Moore: Yeah, and to continue to kind of clean up where I was going, if we if the nation had been founded by the greatest founding documents with the most astute people to draft these documents and create or form this country, and now it's become something else, what difference does it really make? Now I know that some are gonna argue, well, let's let's face it, you and I both know it. The one piece of ammunition to totally poop on the entire system is slavery. It's it's all a right. I mean, so it comes down to sure Jefferson wrote all men are created equal, which was something he had to fight to keep in. He wanted to write against slavery, the king's responsible. No, no, no, don't say that. Three-fifths compromise we've all argued about. The seeds of what's going to lead 80 years later to a conflict where 600 plus thousand people die.

Charles: Yes. Always.

Jack Moore: It's kind of in the mix when they're putting the country together. They are fighting this issue of the expansion of slavery, the retention of slavery, abolition. So it's in the mix. It doesn't mean in the founding documents they don't get concepts correct. But they have the stain of hey, you're not treating everybody equal, and you've got this long running history. So many people that want to attack the formation of the country is the hypocrisy of the very founders. Talk to me.

Charles: Mm. What is that saying about you should never let the perfect be the enemy of the good or something like I I I tend to get it mixed up but regardless, it it's I look at it this way, especially when you travel to other countries. Like

Jack Moore: Yeah. That's correct.

Charles: World Cup is going on here in the United States and you have all the European well, people from around the world that are coming here and they're like, Wow, this is the greatest place on the planet and so on and so forth. Well, if you were to go travel to their country, you would probably say the same thing. For the fact that you wouldn't really wouldn't know all the all the minute things that the the people have to go through because you're not there long enough. So what people tend to do when they travel is look at all of the good stuff because that's what they're exposed to.

Jack Moore: Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Sure.

Charles: And and then they say, Well, why can't my country be like that? Well, y you have to take it you can't just pick and choose what you want. You can't treat it like a cafeteria. You have to look at it as a whole. And the United States doesn't have some bad stuff going on here. Yes, it does. It sure does. But you know what? I still rather have the best stuff here than what's going on, say England. I I don't want to have to deal with that. I don't want to have to deal with going on in Mexico. I don't want to have to deal with what's going on in South Africa. I could go on and on and on as to the things that I would not to you know, as a total want to deal with in other countries. We expect everything to be perfect all the time. It's not. And it's not.

Jack Moore: Well, I think it's a great well, there's a greater political agenda. I mean, let's face it, let's let the cat out the bag. There are people that think throughout the twentieth century there has been well, the the argument about the kind of the groundswell of the underground leftists that want to do some type of takeover and destruction of the United States to achieve a different purpose, you know, with the Bolshevik revolution. There was the true, the the the proletariat, the bourgeoisie, there was this the the workers of the of the of the world unite type of thing. And it didn't work post-World War II, the argument was, because most Americans in this, you know, sort of growing middle class had it pretty good. You know, they're like, they're kind of like, I'm not looking for now, were we ripe for some type of socialist revolution, say 1920 or 1932? Absolutely. Is Roosevelt's going in? People are out of work. There's 25% unemployment, the Great S depression's on. People are becoming radicalized. And it makes sense because they're kind of like, hey, the system's not working. Now, some would say from 1913, the formation of the Federal Reserve set the ground for these ups and downs in the market and the destruction of the economy. Right. So you get into all the different theories, but my point is the argument is that if you're gonna if you're going to do sort of like what

Charles: Right.

Jack Moore: With with in China, you did it a c among class, because everybody's Chinese. You can't really do it on the race thing. You have to do it on the that guy has a bigger farm, right? You have to do it on class. So it's not really working as much in the US. So it becomes a let's take every marginalized group of people. Let's create the oppressor versus the oppressed. You understand the whole drill. And what has been done in selling the

Charles: Class. Right. Yeah. Yes.

Jack Moore: Kind of mind-numb kid you see on the street, what do you think of America? I think it's a horrible place. It is, it has done all these terrible things to people. Yet people are literally risking their lives to cross the border to get into it. So this is supposed to be the most racist and horrible country in the world, but you know, a lot of people are trying to get in. Okay. That being said, if there is, and I think, you know, it's it's the capture of the institutions and clearly from the colleges down through.

Charles: Mm. Right.

Jack Moore: Teaching the ones that are going to teach the third graders and all this. All of these young people, say all of these, many of these young people throughout the institutions of higher education have been indoctrinated to hate the country, to find fault in everything. And again, like I said, most of it, I think, is based upon the whole idea of we have a stained founding existence based upon slavery. I'm not saying it's not, but but you can look at a document, and Jefferson can nail all the concepts.

Charles: Which is

Jack Moore: Man exists before the government, governments should be instituted among men, all men are created equal. He's not wrong. Now, if you're saying he's hypocritical to own slaves and write these things, different argument. Well, it's a discussion. But it doesn't make the country necessary. Then you get into some apologists like, well, we've been trying to ever since live up to it. We had a civil war, this happened, we have amendments. All this is part of the march through it. But my concern now is where are people on their view of the function of government? And I wanna read some numbers. I want I want your response first, but then I wanna read some numbers about where some things are and it's kind of concerning to me. So what what's your response to kind of what I said there?

Charles: Well you were you're talking about the Bolsheviks. I don't see they didn't do anything different than what the Chinese are doing now. Because if it's not about race it's gonna be about class. It's always gonna be something to divide people. I don't care what what society it is, even even if everyone looks the same and everyone's the same class, well if you're that shade of color then you're different than than this other shade. There it's gonna be something. But

Jack Moore: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Charles: that the famous saying from Animal Farm, you know, we're all equal, but some of us are more equal than others. That's how the the socialists or communists look at it. Yeah, we're all equal, but you know, you're gonna live on the farm or you're gonna live in this tenement building and I'm gonna live in the palace. But we're all equal. Actually that means we're not equal. We're not, you know.

Jack Moore: Absolutely. Yep. Yep.

Charles: On that note, I'm actually watching this this series on Apple TV called Star City. It's a a alternate universe, if you want to call it alternate history of the the Soviet Union during the nineteen sixties, in the space race. And they make it to the moon before we do. But it's it's taken place in the Soviet Union. And just certain things like they're always listening, they're always watching.

Jack Moore: Mm-hmm.

Charles: You know, you don't have the freedoms that the the government say that the that you do and the government has no no problem with just treating you like a number. If we want to get rid of you, we'll get rid of you. And as I'm watching this, I'm thinking I'm thinking like, yeah, this is fictional, but that portion of the story is true. I I know that for a fact, you know, listening to people who've who escaped the Soviet Union or East Germany, anything like that, or someplace like that, they all said the same thing. We didn't have to deal with that for the most part. We we didn't. But we're starting to have to deal with it now. And I think the reason that we're starting to deal with it now is because some so many people were mesmerized by equality and so on and so forth when it comes to communism or socialism that they're wanting to impose this stuff here, but what they don't get is it always, always, always has a drawback of humans taking advantage of humans based on whatever group they belong to. You can't escape it.

Jack Moore: Well, and I think about I want to give okay for the viewers. By the by the way, like, subscribe, share, please subscribe. I want to get Charles and I both want to get more of this out. Get the subscription numbers up, please. Comment, please comment. Tell us where we're wrong, right or otherwise. Now, here's some recent news. Most Americans continue to view capitalism more favorably. Than communism. Although support for socialism has been rising, particularly among younger demographics, recent polls indicate that 54% of U.S. adults have a positive view of capitalism, while only 14 express a favorable opinion of communism. Now, the trends in support, capitalism, despite a majority favoring capitalism, its positive perception has declined. It was 60 just a few years ago. Communism, support for communism. Communism remains low with only 14%. But now you get into younger Americans, there's a noticeable increase in support for socialism among younger Americans. For instance, surveys indicate that 62% of Americans aged 18 to 29 hold a favorable view of socialism. Generational differences. Older generations tend to favor capitalism. And of course, I want to get into this too, because it's always been a little bit frustrating for me.

Charles: Wow.

Jack Moore: not that I'm trying to be the smartest guy in the room, I'm not, but a lot of people I know that consider themselves Republican, right wing conservative, they'll throw ca I'm a capitalist, I'm a capitalist. So I l I just I did a little deep dive because I know that Louis I I think it's pronounced Bloc was the the way that it was pronounced the French it looks like Blanc, but I I think it's pronounced Bloc. in eighteen fifty was the first to use the term capitalism.

Charles: Okay.

Jack Moore: And it was to be an ism to be against. So he was a socialist, and he was being insulting to those that wanted to collect capital. It was so it was the and and and my point is a lot of people that consider themselves what I would think is more free market types will throw around, well, I'm a capitalist. And it's actually what I'm saying is a Marxist term. I did see though where Alexamer Alexander Hamilton used kind of a derivative thereof.

Charles: Hmm.

Jack Moore: in the 1780s. So so the term about capital and its collection of, which is not necessarily an evil concept, because again, I think that people, whether you're talking about free markets, free enterprise, most of the upturns in my mankind in the movement out of poverty has been a result of people being able to own wealth, own the means of production, and to move the country forward. So I just wanted to say that to say I think a lot of kids today are listening to their college professors talking utopian thoughts of collectivism and things like that, and they're buying in. Isn't that scary? Talk to me.

Charles: Well it's easy to to to rail against capitalism when you don't have to really live in a world you don't have to produce anything in that world. You can say that, it's just one person taking advantage of another person and so on and so forth. That's not exactly what capitalism is. And I remember someone's saying and I agree with them a hundred percent, what we're what we have in here in the United States right now isn't exactly capitalism, is more so of crony capitalism because the the government has been putting their finger on the scale to tip it in favor of other people or other industries or other countries. That's not fair capitalism. Let's just go back to was it two thousand eight, two thousand seven with the financial crisis that we had back then.

Jack Moore: Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Charles: We always ask the question. So what would have happened if these banks had failed? What would have happened? And the the the next logical question would be, yeah, what would have happened if if the bank that held my mortgage failed? Would I just own the house? I kind of think we probably would be in a better position right now if that had happened, but no, that's not what we did. We bailed the banks out. We bailed these companies out and in and

Jack Moore: Right. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Charles: Who actually did it benefit? It didn't benefit the people. It only benefited those countr those companies. So we should have let them fail. We should have really truly let capitalism do what it does and and let the weakest segment of that industry to disappear. But that's not what we did. So I don't look at what we have right now or what we're doing is is pure capitalism. It's not.

Jack Moore: No, no, it no, it's it's clearly not that. No, it's not. And some people would say it's like, you know, a mixed economy. You always hear that too like, well, there's some collectivism, there's a welfare state, but yeah, they also have some freedom. But another thing, too, is I looked up because I think this word is thrown around so much that I don't think people ever really look into the history is fascism. And well, there's a guy that I saw on YouTube, historian.

Charles: I love that word. Yeah.

Jack Moore: And very much I remember this being an eye opener to me years ago when I kind of became more and more interested in what we define as classical liberalism or libertarians today, is they're like, most people are going to say there is a spectrum of politics. There's hard right extreme fascism, hard left extreme communism. They're on an extreme. And somewhere in the middle, there's moderates. And the libertarians in their libertarian quiz, the party put up years ago. There was a diamond shaped. And I thought, okay, that makes a lot of sense. So you start at the bottom, and it's economic and personal freedom. Who you sleep with, do you keep your money? And then you go up to the right and to the left, depending on how much freedom you're after. If you max out on you always think freedom at the top of the diamonds, the libertarian view. If you kind of skew to the right, you're the right-wing conservative. And if you're the left winger, you kind of.

Charles: Yes.

Jack Moore: So the left winger says, sleep with what you want to, we're going to keep your money. We can better spend your money. The right winger says, no, we're going to control your personal life. We're going to let you keep your money. The libertarian's like, screw what you want and keep your money. And the authoritarians at the bottom. So what this guy that I was watching this is storing, he goes, What people don't understand is whether you're Stalin or Hitler, you're screwed. Okay. Whether it's extreme communism, so he said, what the political systems should be measured upon is how much freedom do you have? And he goes, you could have a monarch. Look, you could have a monarch that wants to turn over a nice little neat country to his son when he becomes king. He might be the nicest guy of all. He might be recognized in your personality. Just because he's the king doesn't necessarily mean he's got his boot on your throat. So the the go ahead. Go ahead. Say it.

Charles: So I've been saying this for quite some time because I've noticed that the definition of fascism has changed over the past ten or so years. And well right, pretty much, yes. So from from right to left, it used to be anarchy, libertarianism, and fascism was in the middle. And then communism, I'm sorry, socialism, then communism. The the classical definition of fascism used to be, and I'm just gonna paraphrase it, a a

Jack Moore: To fit Trump. Yeah. Whatever Trump does.

Charles: society whereas the the corporations are privately owned but very heavily regulated by the government. That's what it used to be. I th I was just about to say that. Technically we're fascists by default. I think people want us to be socialist by taking or ownership of a a lot of the the the larger corporations and you know what?

Jack Moore: Yes. Kinda looks like us. That's what we are. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Charles: Didn't we buy the the government buy a good portion of Intel or something like that? And I'm like, why why are we buying private organizations or even portions of private organizations? Where that is clearly going toward the socialist point of view, and that's during this administration. And it wasn't doing the Biden's, it was during this administration. So yeah, the definition of fascism has clearly changed. It was a economic theory, not

Jack Moore: Probably

Charles: not a I just don't like that guy. he he's just trying to push his views on me. I'm gonna call him a fascist. That's not what it was. And it it never was that way until about ten or so years ago. Mussolini was a fascist. And if you look at his his Yeah, exactly.

Jack Moore: Yeah, you know, it's Italian term. Yeah. And and and I'm I'm reading some of the history now. It goes back into the late nineteenth century and then it kind of resurfaces in the early 20th century. They say the first time the term was used was 1872. it played a part in Italy's position during World War One. Along comes Mussolini. And and I was talking to a friend about this in preparing for the show. And one of the like Webster's dictionary is all this. race superiority, all the things that you kind of as a and and that's just a feature of of the Nazi party, but then that maybe to some but it's not it's not fascism necessarily. Now Hitler could have been a fascist and also chose to do all these things along the line of, you know, the extermination of people and all that. I mean, I'm not down, I'm just saying that doesn't mean it's fascist. I mean I you could probably do that at well, I mean the communists got rid of a lot of people. I mean Stalin got rid of a lot more people even than Hitler.

Charles: Right. No. they the communists hold the world's record on getting rid of people, their especially their own. It's not even close. Yes, and and and Mao was like close to forty. Okay, so Hitler was actually an amateur when it comes to exterminating people. But the other two, they get a pass because they were the good communists. They were doing it for the people. Yeah, okay, whatever.

Jack Moore: Sure. Wasn't Stalin twenty plus a million? Yeah, I was gonna say. S so yeah. And this is again mm-hmm good. No, there's there's I think, yeah, certainly with your your armchair historians or your your history professors at fill in the blank university, you know, the Stalin and Mal is not exactly going to be the guys they're after. Hitler, you know, Hitler his Hitler's the guy. Now, Stalin, one of the things I've heard, it's kind of an armchair analysis, but I've heard this that a big part of his loss of life was he never trusted anybody.

Charles: No. Yeah. Right.

Jack Moore: Didn't it d the game but I think there came to be a real problem in the officer corps during war two, World War II because he kept killing everybody. And finally, like somebody cautiously held up a hand and was like, Hey, Joe, Joe, if you keep killing all the like he'd kill people and then the you the ones he used to kill some people, they knew that he'd kill the people like, well, I can't trust them now because they know what I've done, so I gotta kill them. So it just kind of went on and on, and it got to be such a problem because he never trusted anyone around him, was you know, sort of the argument. He's a pretty interesting figure.

Charles: It was.

Jack Moore: When it comes to taking everybody out around them. But what do we do? We certainly align in the war. And I was watching in a storm the other day on World War II, and this can't be said enough. They were made the Soviet Union pretty much in large part won that war in the sense that they took the brunt of all the death. And we let's face it, the United States lost four hundred and some odd thousand souls in World War II. I get it. There's been estimates that the Soviet Union may have lost 23 million.

Charles: Yes.

Jack Moore: People, both civilians and military. And while they're over there fighting on the east, you know, they're they're kind of dividing the the the Nazi re you know, we come up from Africa and then we kind of, you know, do the Normandy invasion from from England and we pinch in, but who do we meet? We meet the Soviet Union because they're doing the brunt of the work on the other end, the huge amount of the work. Fair?

Charles: Right. Yeah. That that that's very fair. But I will say this. This point of view, or at least I say our point of view, there are people who are on the left mostly who would say that what we did was bad and that's what makes the country bad now. They would literally make that argument. As in well we probably shouldn't have fought on the side of of

Jack Moore: What we did bad, what?

Charles: England, we probably should we we probably should have let's just say we did a lot of bad things in World War Two, we did a lot of bad things in W World War one, especially Vietnam. You know, their point of view when it comes to Vietnam is gonna be like that was quite possibly the worst possible thing we could have ever done as a country is to go and fight those poor Vietnamese over in their own country. Those are the people, remember Those are the people that are now teaching our kids or are teaching our kids kids. And if they have that philosophy, no wonder, no wonder they really don't care about the two hundred fiftieth anniversary or birthday of the country. They don't care.

Jack Moore: Sure.

Charles: And it's it's sad. It's very sad in my personal opinion.

Jack Moore: So more numbers and we'll close out. Recent polls in 2026 indicate that 70% of Americans say they are proud to be Americans. 70%. With a significant divide politically, 96% of Republicans express pride in being American, compared to 58% of Democrats. Additionally, there's a notable generational gap. Only 36% of young adults report being extremely or very proud to be American.

Charles: D.

Jack Moore: And I'll say this, I'm 64. I was 14 years old during the 50th, or I'm sorry, the 200th, the bicentennial. I was 14. I had a different worldview. I was 14. I was in the ninth grade or whatever. So my memory was the big ships coming into all the harbors, you know, throughout the country, Gerald Ford's president, but also remember we're coming out of Vietnam. We're one year out of, you know, escaping Saigon. or, you know, the helicopters. I remember that. Nixon has just gone out on a rail. He's been, you know, he was facing impeachment and resigned. gas prices, and I remember this. I I remember gas at 29.9. And I remember hearing people in the mid-70s, I'll tell you one damn thing, if it goes to a dollar, I'm I'll stop driving. And it went, it went by a dollar. So in the midst of all that, we're celebrating 200 years. And my 14-year-old memory was there was a bicentennial minute every night on TV.

Charles: Mm. Right.

Jack Moore: I remember everything being very positive and upbeat. I don't know exactly what the numbers, I could look them up, but I think most Americans felt pretty good about the country. Where race relations, I mean, really we're we're a decade and in change from the civil rights legislation. But again, I think we're kind of moving into the sweet spot of a lot of relations into the 80s and 90s that seemed more positive, let's just say. So now here we are 50 years apart from the bicentennial. And I gotta say, I didn't watch any of it. The 250th, I didn't care. I really didn't care. I don't hate this country. I love you. Like I you're my brother, and I care about you. So you are part of my life. And there's other people that are part of my life. We live in this country where I want you to be free to make as much money as you can, have wealth, knock yourself out. I would hope you'd want the same for me, and I know you would. So that's kind of where we are. We're Americans.

Charles: I didn't either. No.

Jack Moore: But we would like for America to reflect the most freedom we could possibly have and be on the same page and live in communities where we both feel safe. And that's all we want. And spun however you put whatever label you want. That's all we're after. And a lot of good people, that's all they're after. But I don't see that. When I and and I will say this too on the on the young versus the old, I think it was during the Occupy Wall Street period, maybe. I just remember there's a guy.

Charles: Yes.

Jack Moore: Who grew up in the Soviet Union, who would go on the street and do a lot of contact with kids, and they're kids yelling at him. It's it's it's I don't think it's some orchestrated YouTube thing. I think it was real. You know, he's got a cameraman there, and he's like, kids, what do you think? And they're like, socialism, we want social collectivism. And he goes, Hey, I'm from the Soviet Union, it doesn't work out, so shut up, old man, what do you know? So they're saying, Shut up, old man. These are 21 year olds that live in their mom's basement, stay on the computer all day, whatever. I mean, serious.

Charles: Right, right.

Jack Moore: These are 21-year-olds telling a guy in his 60s who lived in the Soviet Union that knows all the drill. He knows it. They're like, shut up, what do you know? My college professor said it's just never worked perfectly. You were part of that imperfect Soviet Union. We're going to get it right this time, kind of thing. You know, and you're kind of watching that. And have the young discredited or laughed at the elderly for giving them sage advice. Yeah, that's kind of a thing. But I'm like, kids, you might want to listen to the guy that actually lived in this and they don't care. They don't care they don't care to listen.

Charles: Exactly. Yeah. Th they're more concerned about a a utopia than reality. He actually lived the reality and he can tell you chapter and verse that it's not a utopia. It's not. But they don't want to hear that because this is what they've been told pretty much their entire lives. That it is.

Jack Moore: You know, and you f you find people where they are. And given my baseball background, I have had contact with the number of people from Cuba, however distant they are from relatives. I've known some people that lived in Cuba and got out, kind of thing. And my experience is because of my baseball experience and being around some Cubans, they love some America. I'm it's not i i I can't blanket that, but I'll tell you what. The ones I know are really anti-communist. Like they're you know what you but you know what I'm saying? You're you go down to Miami. There's a lot of Cubans in Miami. Like when you're around them, they're not about collectivism. They're about making a buck, a lot of I can't say it across the board, but I've known some Cubans. And it's just the reason I'm saying that is it hurts them personally when their family members couldn't get out or they knew certain oppression that was a part of that regime or part of that government.

Charles: Mm mm okay.

Jack Moore: So when you talk to them, you don't get a whole lot of America's a terrible country. Like, no, no, go live where I came from. This is why I escaped to come here. You know what mean? Right. So I always find that fascinating that you can find people from parts of the world that don't well, I I've coached a bunch of kids from Venezuela. I had kids I coached that couldn't go home. I had kids that said they have relatives there that can't, you know. And it's sad when you hear people say, like, no, no, no, you ought to really see what goes on in my home country. You guys have it so great here. America's Utopia in their minds because they've seen different. You know what I mean? It's and I think some of the people I know that love this country the most weren't born here.

Charles: yes, they seem a lot different. They seem a lot worse. Yeah, I know people like that. I know it. But it's the people who were who were born here in in a lot of cases with a silver spoon in their mouth that are just, this this is the worst place in the world because yeah, I travel to France or I travel this place or I travel that place. And they have it so much better, but it goes back to what I was saying in the beginning. They're they're not really exposed to the long term.

Jack Moore: I know a lot of people like that. You had the luxury. Yeah.

Charles: ramifications of how a screwed up government will make your life a living hell. Cause they can pick up and leave. They're only there temporarily, so yeah. I get to eat in cafes every day and and drink espresso or whatever, you know, it's it's so nice here. Right, but live there. Live there full time and then tell me how nice it is. So

Jack Moore: Yeah, I think Americans do also probably put so much emphasis on the things they think about versus How do I put this exactly? I think a lot of people that merely survive are almost sometimes happier or more content because wake up, if I do well today, I eat. That's a you know pretty good driving force. Americans have a lot of time to contemplate. Like, so again, the kid that's yelling at the Soviet Union guy that lives in his mom's basement and has everything taken care of. He can bitch and moan about this utopian society he believes. But if you're going up somewhere, you wake up in the morning, you got to go tend the fields or go whatever, milk the cat. If you got to do these things to survive, you don't have a lot of time to sit around and bitch and moan about your existence. And you don't really know anything else, probably.

Charles: No, you don't. Nope. No. You have better things to do, honestly.

Jack Moore: And I almost think that a I I actually and I'll close on this 'cause we'll and we'll do it something else with but I actually heard a guy one time and it really spoke to me. It it really made a lot of sense. And that's kind of where I'm going. I'm watching this guy, he's a Harvard graduate, Harvard undergrad. I think he got an MBA or something too. But he's on Wall Street at some point. He's playing the stock market. He's wearing a three piece suit, all that. And one day he just said, Screw it. And now he like works as a logger. something like he's in the woods and they're like, How did you go from Harvard graduate? You had the goods to get into Harvard and graduated with honors. And he goes, I got sick of it. I'm out here every day. I breathe fresh air. I I know the tree comes down, the tree gets, you know, gets on the truck. You know, everything is, and then when I go to when I go home, and I thought of this when I was practicing law.

Charles: Okay. Mm-hmm.

Jack Moore: Every night you go home from practicing law, I'm not saying woe is me, feel sorry for me, but there's a lot of did I file that on time? Am I gonna get sued? Am I am I gonna I you're you're thinking all the time, did I, did I dot every eye? Did I cross every? And this guy was like, When the day is done, it's Miller time. Drink a couple of beers, watch TV, put your feet up. And he said, I wanted to be more in that existence where I was merely living and not just chasing all these other things. And I do think that changes America's perspective.

Charles: Yeah, right.

Jack Moore: I just got back from the Dominican Public and you know that. And I have tons of friends. The people were so sweet and nice. It's it's, you know, it's relatively poor country, but the people f fantastic. But when you're among these people, they're the happiest people. I don't I don't want to overgeneralize, but you know, I mean, there were some really pleasant, super nice people. And they're not living in the type of riches we do where we sit back and we have all these chronic issues and problems and we bitch about everything.

Charles: Yes.

Jack Moore: And they don't care about that. Well, I remember Pedro Martinez once said, We're the most appreciative poor people in the world. He literally, you know, major league pitcher, he's a multimillionaire because he was a he's a hall of famer. But he said, We all come from an existence where we appreciate any riches or wealth because we're so poor and we're appreciative. And I kind of get that vibe. It's very, very nice people. The difference was all my Dominican budded brothers that I love that I've gotten involved with in baseball in the States.

Charles: They don't care. Right.

Jack Moore: The difference there were they were the same people, they just couldn't speak English. I mean, at all. Like, like many of them didn't speak at all. It was rare that I ran into somebody and I'm doing my best to kind of try to understand. And, you know, Laura was down there. We're both stumbling through trying to figure out what anybody's saying. But everything's with the smile on their face. But I'm just saying they don't have a lot, clearly in a nation like that. But when you're with these people, you you do see a different kind of joy about life. I I just th I think Americans, a lot of their problem is.

Charles: Okay.

Jack Moore: They have the kind of wealth in position to contemplate a lot of stuff that shouldn't matter. And I don't know how much of that's orchestrated by the pharmaceutical industry, the medical industry, you know what I'm saying? It's like keep everybody a little bit mentally unwell so that they buy the things they buy and they stay manageably ill or whatever like that. But I do think Americans are kind of skewing psychotic.

Charles: Agree. Right.

Jack Moore: when it comes to what they think the function of government is and all the rest. To to be as yeah. What do you want to say closing?

Charles: Unfortunately. I'm just happy that I grew up naturally curious, that I had no issue with with going to find out for myself. I generally just don't take things, take everything that people say to me, unless I know you really well. But also I y I have to know that you're not trying to just get over on me. And because of that, I've learned, like we were just talking about the definition of fascism.

Jack Moore: Mm-hmm.

Charles: I learned that what they're calling it now is not the truth and I just wish people were a little more curious and maybe they would appreciate how much this country has actually done for the world. It r it's done a lot for all of our faults and all of you know, whatever people can say the United States has done more for any other country on this planet in world history. It's not even close. Yes, by far.

Jack Moore: Yeah. Yeah. The ledger is far more positive than it is negative. And w and when you say what you just said, the other thing that popped in my mind, I started to see as you did, there's been about a twenty five it's been since the turn of the century. You've started to see, well, and it's clear, you've seen these montages of the certain agencies or networks saying the exact same script over and over. So there's definitely some mind stuff going on, whether that's being orchestrated by other alphabetic

Charles: Yes.

Jack Moore: alphabet agencies, we can we can probably agree that's what's going on. But man, when they started that thing, what's it been? 10, 15 years probably, maybe 15, like, well, it's an attack on our democracy. It's an attack. It's everything's an attack on the democracy. And I've read what Madison said about democracy. I've read what a lot of they weren't about any democracy. They wanted a representative republic. Okay.

Charles: Right. Right. Hated it. No.

Jack Moore: They wanted you to vote for your idiot farmer down the street for the member of the House. And we've talked about the state legislatures would send the U.S. senators. They didn't have this idea that every guy on the street had the capacity to vote for things. But they also wanted to believe that the members of the House and Senate wouldn't vote for unconstitutional acts. They wouldn't do something outside of their authority. Well, once you break down that the federal government can do pretty much whatever the hell it wants to, the plot is lost.

Charles: I agree.

Jack Moore: But when I see when I would hear so when the Democrats would scheme more and more ways to cheat in elections or not be they would say, well, we're protecting democracy. I mean, I don't know if that sounds quite right. Like if you're just like you have no hurt the idea who's voting or how many absentee ballots are coming in from wherever, if that's your defense of democracy, you know, but it but you know, it becomes a mantra, it's a it's a bumper sticker, democracy, democracy, democracy. And then

Charles: No. No.

Jack Moore: You know, in a setting, you know, you go we actually don't live in a direct democracy. What are you talking about? CNN told me that, you know, and you right. But they vote. Those people do vote. Yeah. All right. This has been more to consider. Jack and Charles were talking about 250 years of the United States and where we are today, and the polls would seem to indicate that a lot of people are anti-whateck this thing is, and they're certainly anti-the founding. And

Charles: Yeah, they don't know. They don't have a clue. Yep. Unfortunately, yes. Yep.

Jack Moore: What's the odds that in ten to fifteen years it's gonna be better? I don't think it is gonna be better.

Charles: I don't either, unless the asteroid comes. Yes.

Jack Moore: Unless the asteroid comes. So pray for the asteroid. Please like. Get our subscription numbers up so we can do more of this. Okay. So get our sub- We're getting a lot of views. We're getting a lot of traffic. We need subscriptions. Subscribe. Charles, please tell him to subscribe.

Charles: Yes. Yes, please subscribe. It's the it's the least you can do. We would definitely appreciate it.

Jack Moore: Exactly. You got it, brother. God bless all and see you soon again on More to Consider with Charles. Here we go.