See the USA in your Chevrolet America is asking you to call Drive your Chevrolet through the USA America’s the greatest land of all Most Americans are too young to remember the once-famous songstress Dinah Shore and her immensely popular television variety show, which aired from 1956 to 1963. At 76, I am officially “old,” and I was only a child when the show was “must-see” TV for families across America. In our household, at a time when we, like most Americans, had only one TV set, we watched Dinah Shore alongside our parents, enjoying her music and her vivacity. My sister and I watched Dinah Shore much less grudgingly than we watched Lawrence Welk, my dad’s favorite show. For most of its existence, her show was sponsored by Chevrolet, and each episode concluded with her theme song, “See the USA in your Chevrolet.” An advertising jingle to be sure, but for most of us it meant far more than buying the sponsor’s latest automobile. “America” itself was the real message, and the song and the show itself spoke to down-to-earth love for the country itself. In an era when vacations often meant family road trips, and every day pleasures often revolved around the drive-in restaurant or the drive-in movies, we all connected to the message. (RELATED: America’s Love Affair With the Road Endures) We knew what we loved about America, and we knew that much of what we loved could be seen through the windows of a Chevrolet, or a Ford, or a Dodge. We knew that we loved our city neighborhoods and our small town squares. We knew that we were surrounded by good things, and, if some were more fortunate than others, we were all deeply connected, whether through Friday night football or Sunday morning in church. Our fathers, not too long before, had experienced the whole world. Just in my neighborhood, one dad had driven 2 and ½ ton supply trucks up the length of Italy. Another had served as a radioman aboard an LST whose journey had spanned the width of the Pacific. My own father had fought his way from Normandy to Czechoslovakia. And even with allowance made for seeing a world at war, a world at its worst, they came home united in the belief that America was the “greatest land of all.” Just over a month from now, we will celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary, as measured from the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Already, we’re seeing the buildup, with commemorative events planned across the length and breadth of the country. This is undoubtedly a good thing and, since celebrating the Fourth of July as the nation’s birthday is a now-hallowed tradition, the traditionalist in me simply wants to applaud and join unreservedly in the celebrations. It’s not too early to get ready to celebrate, but let’s start by preparing to celebrate for the right reasons. And yet, my reservations are real. For far too long, we’ve been told that the United States is a “creedal nation,” that is, we are united around a set of beliefs enshrined in such documents as the Declaration, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights — the most notable of the statements of purpose and value that define the American “creed” and, by extension, the meaning of America itself. (RELATED: The Declaration, the Constitution, and the Consent of the Governed) This, however, ignores the fundamental fact that, for the better part of 200 years before 1776, an enterprise had been underway to build lives and homes in what would become the United States, and that those lives had meaning separate and distinct from the ideals to which we would aspire. People lived and worked across the newfound land. They loved and laughed, and cried and mourned, mainly without reference to a creed other than their several religious faiths and the values brought from their various “old countries,” soon to be annealed in the heat of life along a new frontier. It also ignores the fact that, in the 250 years since, the greater part of American life has been that which would have been visible from the windows of Dinah Shore’s Chevrolet. To borrow a phrase from yet another song of tribute, “From the mountains, to the prairies, to the oceans, white with foam, God bless America, My home sweet home.” Kate Smith’s rendition of Irving Berlin’s great anthem, in its original time and place, was in no way an appeal to a narrow “nativism,” but rather an appreciation of home, an appreciation that resonated all the more strongly in 1938, as the war clouds gathered all around us. Leftists make sport of “mom’s apple pie and hotdogs,” and insist that these things — and all that they symbolize — are trivial when laid alongside the great aspirations that, in their view, define the meaning of America. The problem, however, is that when we reduce our nation to an idea, even a set of ideas, and assume that what makes us is our shared adherence to such ideas, then we have reduced ourselves to an intellectual notion. Worse, when we’re reduced to a set of ideas, what soon follows is the corruption of the values that inform our cultural, political, and economic lives. And ideas — even noble ideals — are almost infinitely malleable when detached from how ordinary people try to live their normal lives. Malleability becomes the basis for manipulability, and soon our lives are turned completely upside down. (RELATED: Can Liberty Survive Without a Soul?) Thus, for example, hardworking Americans who just want to live without interference are reduced to “the deplorables.” We’re asked to kneel before all manner of absurdities, from George Floyd’s martyrdom to Greta Thunberg’s climate alarmism. We’re asked to believe that Hamas murderers are somehow victims, that the IRGC thugs in Iran are idealist proponents of a “religion of peace.” We’re asked to ignore how fraudsters from around the world invent fresh ways of freeloading off our national wealth, built by generations of hard-working citizens. In the midst of all this, we’re subjected to an unending stream of justifications for a leftist agenda, one crafted by twisting the meaning of our great aspirational documents and the symbols of our historical achievements. Thus, “social justice” depends on allowing crimes to go unpunished, from wholesale shoplifting to the brutal murder of innocent young women. Or, we’re treated to memes that take images of soldiers storming Omaha Beach on D-Day and pretend that these heroes were prototypical Antifa warriors. “Antifa,” of course,  remains the most perfect contemporary example of how historical truth is stood on its head, with the calumnies thrown at ICE agents a very close second. (RELATED: Memes Against America) George Orwell captured this monstrosity perfectly. “War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.” Conservatives often make sport of leftists with the simple phrase: “If they didn’t have double standards, they would have no standards.” But the rot goes much deeper, a rejection of the world as it is, not in favor of a better world, a world we might all share, but for a highly exclusionist utopian fantasy. It’s a world in which ideals can become bludgeons with which to punish those with whom we disagree. “We hold these truths to be self-evident…” dissolves into meaninglessness in the hands of those who insist that there is no such thing as truth, only “my truth.” When the honest pursuit of objective truth disappears from public discourse, the result is not simply nonsense, but rather a world in which power-hungry cynicism pulls the strings. To give Mamdani or Omar their due, they are likely quite aware of the dishonest game they are playing. Unfortunately, they can easily exploit the rampant gullibility of their followers — when there is no “truth,” then it becomes very hard to hold such people accountable. So, in the days ahead, let’s honor the founding of our country and take the time to reflect earnestly and honestly on the role our great founding documents have played in making our country Dinah Shore’s “the greatest land of all.” But let’s not forget that our greatness resides in much more than words, even great and inspirational words. We are a people, a very special people, in every generation welcoming to those who wish to become Americans rather than those who would bend our ideals to their self-serving ends. We are a people whose lives are lived in churches and schools, bars and bodegas, ball fields and tree stands, and in the offices, stores, and factories where we labor to support ourselves, our families, and our communities. America is a profoundly moral nation, but it is more, much more, than simply a moral idea, however high-flown the rhetoric that adorns that idea. It’s not too early to get ready to celebrate, but let’s start by preparing to celebrate for the right reasons. Let’s go for a drive together and, looking out the car window, remind ourselves of how great this country is. READ MORE from James H. McGee: Iran War: The End of the Beginning May Day Protests and Chinese Attack Strategies The Hypocrisy of the ‘Hate Has No Home Here’ Contingent James H. McGee retired in 2018 after nearly four decades as a nuclear security and counter-terrorism professional. Since retiring, he’s begun a second career as a thriller writer. His most recent novel, The Zebras from Minsk, was featured among National Review’s favorite books in 2025.  You can find The Zebras from Minsk (and its predecessor, Letter of Reprisal) on Amazon in Kindle and paperback editions.