Florida GOP Congressman Matt Gaetz evidently wants his followers to feel bad about the United States on a holiday (July 4) that’s meant to celebrate the country.
Early Tuesday, he posted a lengthy statement to social media that directly mirrored some of the rhetoric that’s also been seen from figures like Donald Trump, who’s running again for the GOP presidential nomination. They’re both furious about the direction that the United States has taken… which, in reality, is just the well-documented and natural progression of what was supposed to be driving the country forward all along! Whether that’s greater acceptance of marginalized groups, more stringent legal protections for such individuals, further immigration, increased participation in the electoral process from groups other than white Americans, all of these things fundamentally — and objectively, both in terms of the present and the past — comprise what makes America itself.
And Gaetz is furious. “Though fireworks will stream, and our national anthem will bellow with vigor, there is no disguising that we are a nation in decline,” he said, maligning millions of Americans who’ve recently seen themselves better and better represented in government. “Every day, our country retreats further and further toward the precipice. But do not be discouraged: decline is a choice – our future has yet to be written, and it is ours to write.”
The future is being written right now, Matt, and you’re not a part of it beyond the part in the history books about the people who expressed nothing but hate for vast groups of others. Conspiracy theories about specifically the 2020 election, which Gaetz has also espoused, are a direct affront to what in reality is just the participation in democracy of people from across the U.S. Whether it’s their frenzied hatred for big cities like New York or something roughly similar, why do Republican political leaders so often get away with what’s just hating on America? Gaetz’s statement is viewable in full via the post below or at the following link:
As we celebrate the birth of our great nation, let us honor the vision of our Founding Fathers and the enduring principles of the Constitution. Let us honor what once made us great and devote ourselves to what will make us great once more.
Though fireworks will stream, and our… pic.twitter.com/y0EFSh6DUi
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) July 4, 2023
