The Dispatch Online
Saturday, July 04, 2026
Happy Saturday! We at The Dispatch hope you’re
spending your Fourth of July with family, fireworks, and maybe some grilled
meats. But if you’re still wanting something to read halfway between your
morning coffee and your afternoon beer, we’ve compiled a fun list of our
staffers’ favorite things about this country we call home. From road trips to
democracy to South Florida, our specific American loves run the gamut—and we’re
sure yours do, too.
***
·
Anna Coulter, program coordinator, SCOTUSblog
I’m usually not one to participate in protests, but life
in D.C. means I often encounter a range of demonstrations, from popular to
quite niche. I love that, in America, we have the ability to peacefully protest
about really anything. Through witnessing marches on my commute home, I’ve
learned about religious minorities, horrible tragedies, and the tenacity of
those who live here. Even if I don’t agree with your motion, I’m grateful for
you and your belief in making America better.
·
David M. Drucker, senior writer
To borrow a phrase from Dicky Fox in Jerry Maguire:
“I don’t have all the answers. In life, to be honest, I’ve failed as much as
I’ve succeeded. But I love my wife; I love my kids; and I love life in America
because I have the freedom to pursue my kind of success.”
·
Ashley Dowdney, intern
For being a pluralist country, America is quite
particular. My hometown, Asheville, North Carolina, seemed like an average
mountain town as I aged through middle and high school. But coming to college
broke terrible news: Fermented soda and tempeh reubens were no normal finds in
the rest of America, as they were in Asheville. Generations ago, “go West,
young man” was much more literal. But today, we find our “West” in oddball
communities. When the Chaco-sporting rock climbers of Asheville put down lavender-blackberry
double IPAs together, it’s a vestige of this American rugged individualism,
that insatiable quest for a place and community that is our own. Few were born
among their fellow weirdos, but they sought and found their own in this
colorful tapestry of a country. This phenomenon isn’t limited to this corner of
Appalachia. There are many cases of unique Asheville-like towns, all strange in
a distinctly American way.
·
Jonah Goldberg, editor-in-chief
I think one of the best things about America is the
general cultural tendency to take people as we find them. We hear a great deal
about identity politics, racism, antisemitism, sexism, homophobia, class
warfare, etc. And these are real issues and concerns—which is true everywhere.
But what makes America stand out is the general tendency of normal Americans to
form their opinions of the individuals they meet or work with based on their
actual characters and behaviors. Everyone knows a jack—s or two (or 10) who
defies this, but in my experience they are the exception in the real world (as
opposed to online). And such people are generally considered jacka—es by other
Americans. This doesn’t mean Americans accept or tolerate everyone they meet,
but they tend to form their opinions based on what they see in front of them.
·
Surya Gowda, TMD reporter
Growing up in South Florida, I had a near front-row seat
to the spectacular shows that were the NASA space shuttle launches. I’m only
old enough to have memories of the tail end of these launches, which ran from
1981 to 2011, but the ones I do remember mostly involved me rushing out to the
courtyard with my elementary school class to watch in awe as a rocket lifted
off into outer space. Given that we were located about 90 miles south of the
Kennedy Space Center, we couldn’t see much more than the rocket itself in the
distance, accompanied by a bright point of fire and a thin white condensation
trail. But what my classmates and I collectively witnessed was not just a
shuttle launch from afar, but an extraordinary testament to human achievement.
Life in America offers countless such opportunities for ordinary people to
experience extraordinary things, and that’s what I love most about it.
·
Steve Hayes, CEO
Freedom. We enjoy a system built to limit the power of
government and safeguard our liberty. And even in times that test those
constraints, when we have reason to worry that our current leaders are too
eager to cast aside the wisdom of the Founders, there is a visceral and
quintessentially American impulse to resist that governmental overreach.
Sometimes—now, for instance—I wish those instincts were stronger and more
widespread. But they’re there and they’ve been part of the American character
from our earliest days. And even in challenging times, they’re reason for
optimism.
·
Charles Hilu, reporter
America is unique in that it has such a serious culture
of college sports. Sure, there are huge sports fandoms in other countries, but
nowhere else really mixes higher education with live sports as America does. It
adds such excitement to the college experience.
What’s more, college sports fandom extends beyond current
students to graduates and even people who did not go to a particular school.
This gives a diverse collection of people something in common amid their
differences. As a suburban kid from a little outside of Detroit, I may not have
much in common with someone who grew up in the middle of Los Angeles, for
example, but if you tell me he’s a Michigan fan, we’ll be friends immediately.
At a time when America’s third places and common-ground
institutions are deteriorating, college sports offer a place where people of
different beliefs can come together, learn about each other in a low-stress
environment, and have a little fun.
·
Eli Kronenberg, intern
While hiking a section of Maine’s 100-mile wilderness as
an early-teenage camper, the challenges thrown our way seemed unrelenting. The
steep uphill climbs, the bruising downward slopes, and the weight of our packs
made each step more arduous than the last. Then, as we reached a grassy plateau
during golden hour, the smell of a grill emanating from an off-trail house
caught our attention. Its occupants were supplying so-called “trail magic”:
freshly cooked hot dogs, snacks, and ice-cold sodas for tiring hikers who
passed by. We stopped to indulge, delaying our progress toward the day’s
endpoint, but gathering some much-needed fuel and getting to know our generous
hosts. Only in this country can you be in the midst of the most breathtaking
nature—rocky mountains that look out onto gargantuan lakes, forests that extend
for miles, valleys that glisten in the summer sun—and still feel the neighborly
warmth of fellow Americans who treat strangers as though they were family.
·
Rachael Larimore, managing editor
Higher education has taken its lumps in recent years,
with skyrocketing tuition and complaints about ideological indoctrination. But
much of the drama involves elite private institutions. Meanwhile, our public
universities play an important role in keeping the engine of America running.
Sure, other nations provide free university education, but often only to those
who meet stringent admission standards. And comparably few offer the
residential experience that enables young adults to establish independence and
develop into productive citizens—and the variety of offerings is unparalleled.
They are the perfect environment for ambitious kids from any economic
background, and they are just as good at churning out Fortune 500 CEOs as the
privates. America, heck yeah.
·
Charlotte Lawson, associate editor
When I was a child, I dreamed of becoming a deep-sea
fisher in Alaska. Had I ever reeled in anything bigger than a half-pound bream
off my grandpa’s skiff in middle Georgia? No. Did I have total conviction in my
ability to realize this goal? Yes. A few years later, I decided my talents were
better suited to Rhode Island, where I could serve coffee by day and write my
novel by night. Never mind that I grew up in the Sun Belt and wilted in the
cold. Surfing in Hawaii (despite a distinct lack of coordination), wrangling in
Wyoming (I’d ridden a horse exactly once), and excavating historical sites in
Virginia (this one, admittedly, was plausible) also all had their moments.
Some may call it indecision, but I call it freedom—and
for that, I have America to thank. The United States, in its sheer size and
diversity, continues to pass down the frontier spirit to new generations. Our
options aren’t nearly as limited by language, geography, or borders as much of
the world is, and that allows Americans to envision all sorts of beautiful and
fascinating lives for themselves. For me, that meant settling down on the east
coast of Florida. But who knows? The frontier still beckons.
·
Valerie Pavilonis, ideas editor
Road trips. The fact that you can get in your car and drive,
and there will always be gas stations and bathrooms and billboards and maybe a
Buc-ee’s if you’re lucky. I took a long drive down the boot of Italy in 2022
and sure, there were fewer eyesores of roadside ads. But sometimes you need to
be reminded that, yes, “HELL IS REAL,” and sometimes you need to be eating a
brisket sandwich while listening to The Marshall Tucker Band while you do it.
Road trips are how you charge the American soul.
·
James Scimecca, membership growth manager
Does “all of it” count? Maybe it’s not “cool” or
“statistically correct” to say it, but America really does feel exceptional. I
was recently in Alaska and was simply awestruck by the mountains and
forests—but I get a similar twinge walking through my
neighborhood and seeing red, white, and blue bunting on a townhouse fence.
If you clear out some of the political noise, there’s still a real, present
sense of wonder and optimism in America. It’s contagious.
·
Daniel Sipes, intern
Road trips have always struck me as a uniquely American
pastime. Partly it’s our geography. We’ve got a surplus of long, flat, empty
stretches of road, perfect for joyriding. But it’s also something about
Americans: We like to drive. It’s not just a way of getting from point A to
point B. Many Americans go on road trips where there’s no real destination at
all. The point is to travel quickly and see everything, the way you can’t from
an airplane window. America is so vast, its people and geography so varied,
that one place doesn’t even come close to summing it up; the only way to really
see America is a road trip. It’s no wonder that so many of our great books are
travel narratives. The road trip comes from a deep desire at the heart of the
American psyche: a desire for fortune, adventure, and—ultimately—togetherness.
·
Evan Spear, TMD reporter
I love the highway system. Growing up in Los Angeles, I
had to rely on it to get most places and, when it worked, it was fantastic.
I’ve never felt freer and more American than driving in the far left lane with
the windows down on the 101 freeway with the glittering Pacific Ocean to my
left (it goes without saying that I always drove at a reasonable and Dispatchian
speed). I felt like I could drive anywhere in the country. It still blows my
mind that we built all those freeways.
·
Mike Warren, politics editor
I love the way Americans organize themselves into
groups—Burke’s “little platoons”—around shared interests and public
spiritedness. Yes, there are fewer bowling leagues, as Robert Putnam noted a
generation ago, but Americans still love to get together for a self-driven
purpose. America is its pickleball leagues, its improv comedy groups, its book
clubs, its charity drives, its neighborhood block parties, its garage bands,
its Cub Scout packs, its knitting nights, its fan conventions, its company
softball teams, its board game meetups, and its church soup kitchens. These are
the purest expressions of both our freedoms and our responsibilities as
citizens, and that innate American desire to get together and do something
remains as strong as ever, even as the isolation of our modern age threatens
it. The long-term health of our country depends, I believe, on the strength of
these institutions.
·
Kevin D. Williamson, national
correspondent
Having no class. We are not a truly classless society in
either sense of that word, and while we do sometimes approach classlessness in
the negative sense, we also come close to achieving it in the positive sense.
If you’re in England or India or Spain, it matters a great deal who your
parents are, where you went to school, what church your grandparents went to,
what kind of accent you have. We Americans just have money, and it is a hell of
a lot easier to make some money than to substitute your grandparents for some
fancier ones. It isn’t perfect, but that’s how we keep score, and it’s why
we’re twice as rich as our British cousins.
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