Happy 4th to you, too, Eddie!
MS NOW contributor and Princeton professor Eddie Glaude Jr appeared on Tuesday’s Morning Joe to offer his repetitively bleak take on America as the nation nears its 250th birthday.
Glaude described America as a "white republic,” built on "greed and selfishness and grift and hatred." Invoking Moby Dick, he analogized the US to an ugly "white whale" that threatens to "choke out the life of the country.” Patriotism is racism.
Co-host Mike Barnicle offered a cautious counterpoint, admitting he still sings the Star Spangled Banner at ballgames, tears up in certain cemeteries, and appreciates the American flag on a sunny day.
But Barnicle quickly added an obligatory qualification, claiming “we live under a Constitution where the words, ‘all men are created equal,’ was [sic] written by a slave owner.” (Note to Mike: that line comes from the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution.)
Barnicle then asked Glaude whether he sees “optimism at the end of this July 4th rainbow.”
“No, no Mike I don’t. I don’t think I’ve ever teared up around patriotism. I don’t ever think I found joy in, in, in singing the Star Spangled Banner.”
On @Morning_Joe: America a 'White Republic' Built on 'Greed, Selfishness, Grift, and Hatred' pic.twitter.com/bmuSpctaAN
— Mark Finkelstein (@markfinkelstein) June 30, 2026
Instead of patriotism or optimism, Glaude offered what he called a “blue-soaked hope” [vote blue?] rooted not in America itself but in the “miraculous potential of human beings.” His role, he said, is to “bear witness with love and see how we make it to the other side.” Nevertheless, "the country has this tremendously burdensome past that has it by the throat in so many ways."
Mika Brzezinski closed the segment by embracing Glaude's cynical view of America: “We really appreciate what you’ve had to share this morning. I reflect your feelings.”
Glaude’s appearance fits a well-established liberal media pattern of platforming voices who emphasize America’s original sin and persistent “ugliness,” while sidelining its unmatched progress in expanding liberty, opportunity, and inclusion.
With this brand of rhetoric shaping students in Princeton’s African American Studies department, it’s little wonder that a notable Princeton alum, Michelle Obama, famously declared that she wasn’t “really proud of my country” until her husband’s 2008 nomination.
As the nation prepares to mark 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, Morning Joe offered viewers another helping of grievance over gratitude from the liberal-media crowd.
Here's the transcript.
MS NOW
Morning Joe
6/30/26
6:59 am EDTEDDIE GLAUDE JR.: The divided soul of America. And that has been the case since our founding. We've imagined ourselves at once as a beacon of freedom, and as a white republic. And that white republic takes the form where greed and selfishness and grift and hatred overwhelm, in so many ways, our attempt to overwhelm and overrun our most basic principles.
And that divided soul, in so many ways, is in full view in our current moment. And a choice has to be made, it seems to me. Who are we going to be? Who are we as Americans? Who are we going to be?
Are we going to lean into the value of the diversity of this nation, of the principles that make us or can make us who we claim to be? Or are we going to double down on the ugliness, that white whale that Melville wrote about, and let that, in so many ways, choke out the life of the country?I believe in this 250th, we have to make a choice. America, in so many ways, has to leave behind this guaranteed innocence, Willie, and confront who we actually are so that we can release ourselves into being otherwise.
Otherwise, we're not going to make it to the other side of this madness, it seems to me.
MIKE BARNICLE: You know, Eddie, I have to tell you, I still sing the Star Spangled Banner at ball games. I still tear up when I walk through certain cemeteries. I still enjoy seeing an American flag flapping in the wind on a wonderful, clear, sunny day.
But I also know that we live under a Constitution where the words, "all men are created equal," was written by a slave owner.
But my question to you is, do you see optimism at the end of this July 4th rainbow?
GLAUDE: No, no Mike, I don't. And it comes about, I think that that orientation follows from, from my own formation. I don't think I've ever teared up around patriotism. I don't ever think I found joy in singing the Star Spangled Banner.It has something to do with the tradition out of which I've come. The way in which I have had to live and the people that I come from have had to live the contradiction of America itself, even as we have struggled for its promise.
So I'm not optimistic. You know, I have a blue-soaked hope, my friend, a blue-soaked hope, and that is that the world is what it is. It's ugly. The country has this tremendously burdensome past that has it by the throat in so many ways. But, you know, human beings can be monstrous, but they can also be miracles. And that faith in the miraculous potential of human beings is what I have, not in the abstraction. So I bring the fullness of my tradition to bear in this moment.
And so what I need to do is just simply bear witness with love and see how we make it to the other side, my friend.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Author Eddie Glaude Jr., thank you very much. We really appreciate what you've had to share this morning. I reflect your feelings. We have challenges. Miracles do happen as well. So, here we are.
