With the 2026 Winter Olympics coming to a close, a word of advice to our liberal counterparts in the media and the Democratic Party: You should learn to love America again.
The United States had its best-ever Winter Olympics performance this year, winning more gold medals at the Winter Games than ever, finishing second in both the gold medal count and total medal count to Norway. That included an enchanting performance by figure skater Alysa Liu and a dominant performance by the U.S. women’s hockey team. It was capped off by an upset by the U.S. men’s hockey team, which won gold for the first time since the 1980 Miracle on Ice, taking down a stacked Canadian team in sudden-death overtime.
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This kind of Olympic performance should be enough to surface the pride from every American, but liberal media just couldn’t bring themselves to take some pride in the red, white, and blue. HuffPost reassured its liberal readers that they are not alone if they are disgusted by “U-S-A” chants or the waving of the American flag at the Olympics. The outlet even quoted a therapist who said that hating the U.S. government while trying to take pride in being an American “continues to be one of the main topics I hold space for in therapy.”
At the Atlantic, former ESPN personality Jemele Hill claimed that President Donald Trump was putting Olympic athletes into an “impossible position” of representing a country “that presently doesn’t represent you.” The America shaming was so prevalent that it was refreshing, if still embarrassing, when the New Yorker told its liberal readers that the men’s hockey gold served “as a reminder that national pride isn’t always a bad thing.”
This has been a problem for Democrats and liberal Americans for a while now. Polls consistently show that liberal pride in being an American craters when a Republican president is in office, while conservative pride in being an American suffers no drop off under a Democratic president (and is much higher than liberal pride regardless of who is in office).
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It does not have to be this way. Alysa Liu is almost certainly a liberal, and Jack Hughes, who scored the game-winner against Canada, was an outspoken proponent of the NHL’s gay pride night celebrations. And yet, neither of them let their view of politics cross their patriotism. As Hughes said after the game, “We’re USA. We’re so proud to be Americans. Tonight was all for the country.”
It is that simple. You should not base your love of America on whether you like or hate one sole politician in the White House in a given year. America is too great a country for you to judge, good or bad, based on someone in Washington, D.C. who does not even know who you are. Conservatives in America know this already. Our liberal friends would be happier if they figured it out.