As our great nation celebrated its 250th birthday, Americans found themselves caught up in a wave of patriotism launched by the most unexpected of sources: European soccer fans.
This June, the FIFA World Cup was held in the United States for the first time since 1994. As European tourists experienced American culture for the first time, they helped rekindle national pride.
Heartwarming videos have gone massively viral as Europeans rave about the cleanliness and safety of American parks, free refills at American restaurants, the delicacy that is Chick-fil-A, and of course, Buc-ees.
Although Europeans are stereotyped as snobbish, what stood out in many of these videos was tourists’ appreciation for the South and Midwest, areas that our mainstream media often disparage.
The difference between how America is portrayed in the worldwide news and reality shocked European tourists, with many reporting that they felt lied to after experiencing American culture for themselves.
“America, you deserve an apology,” said one tourist. “Thousands of World Cup fans are now seeing America through their own eyes and realizing that the narrative they’ve been fed is false.”
While the United States does have very real issues to address, it’s good to be reminded that we Americans are still better off in many ways than the citizens of other developed nations.
One viral video, taken by a South African man, showed his disbelief that unaccompanied women were able to safely walk in American parks.
“There are women walking alone and they’re not being harassed,” he said. “This park is clean and tidy and there are squirrels that haven’t been eaten!”
Even a trip to Walmart is a transcendent experience for European shoppers. One Swiss tourist admired the array of American flags prominently displayed in the store, saying, “I wish we could have this in Switzerland.”
While visiting our stores, tourists also loaded up on bottles of ranch dressing, a newly discovered delicacy. The obsession with ranch was so widespread that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) made a public announcement that travelers should remember to pack their ranch in checked bags.
Even more than the safety, cleanliness, and delicious food, European tourists noted over and over again how kind and welcoming Americans were. One French woman tearfully said that it was hard to leave after experiencing American hospitality.
“People have been so kind to me in the USA,” she said. “You can see on their faces that they’re happy and that they’re genuinely kind.”
Especially under the Trump Administration, when the mainstream media busily highlights division and morbidly (and falsely) claims that we’re “losing our democracy,” it’s easy to start to believe this narrative—that life in America isn’t all that great. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Seeing our country through Europeans’ eyes was exactly the fresh perspective we needed, with people on the Left as well as on the Right rediscovering latent patriotism right before Independence Day.
In a segment on June 26, leftist journalist Bill Maher remarked on the European takeover, saying, “I am loving that the World Cup has brought to our shores all of these people that are doing Americans the service of reminding us, just when we needed it, on our big (250th) birthday, that actually, this place is kind of awesome.”
Conservative commentator Brett Cooper also celebrated the world’s newfound appreciation for America: “There is so much that we take for granted here, from the variety of landscapes to the myriad subcultures that are so uniquely American […] it’s good to be reminded of how special that is,” she said.
If the Europeans have taught us anything, it’s that we should never forget the blessing of being American. Our unique culture is worth celebrating—and this July 4, many thousands more people now understand, as we do, that America is the greatest country on earth.
