Judd Dunning Columnist Author Political Commentator

By Judd Dunning | Newsmax Insider | Author/Host

America is another name for opportunity. Our whole history appears like a last effort of Divine Providence on behalf of the human race. I love this country with pure passion. Every day I awaken intensely grateful for and absolutely stoked on America. I have felt this way since childhood regardless of what political party I aligned with through different stages of my life. I simply understood how rare and good America is compared to the reality experienced by so much of the rest of the world. Americanism is more akin to a winning historical lottery ticket than a nationality. America was born of many happy accidents and philosophical advancements, but those accidents were protected by citizens with character, faith, toughness and gratitude.

America was born from a remarkable confluence of ideas and philosophical advancements. Thinkers influencing America included Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Baron de Montesquieu and many others. Philosophies shaping America include the 1215 Magna Carta, the 1688 English Bill of Rights, Neoplatonism, Christianity and Judaism. These ideas collided in a perfectly timed confluence of events to create and shape American society. This is a most rare blessing indeed because most of human history has not been defined by liberty. Most of human history has been defined by domination.

Consider the overarching global tyranny of history through monarchies, dictatorships, theocracies, plutocracies and oligarchies. Add the many fascist, socialist and communist regimes that followed. Amidst all of that, America should never have existed. The original thirteen colonies survived famine, disease and unimaginable hardship before defeating the mightiest empire on earth. They endured a bloody Civil War, survived two global world wars, weathered economic panics, depressions and countless predictions of inevitable decline. Yet today American citizens still reside in the world’s richest, strongest and freest constitutional republic. This remains mind boggling to grateful Americans. The thoughtful among us naturally ask: Why us? Why here? Why still? Why now?

The answer begins with our founders’ enduring belief in limited government and trust in the American people. Today we already live under mountains of regulation. The 2025 Federal Register closed at 60,917 pages, the lowest annual total since 1992. Thank you, Donald Trump. That followed Biden’s 2024 Federal Register, which reached a record 106,109 pages, surpassing Obama’s previous record and reflecting the dramatic expansion of the federal bureaucracy. We have enough laws. We need fewer laws, not more. America could stop making new laws for ten years and give our political leaders a vacation, and our citizens a vacation from them, because we still trust our citizens. We remain a moral, good, God-centered society, given to us by the men who created this great country and by the Divine itself.

The Ninth and Tenth Amendments remain as relevant today as the day they were written. Powers not delegated to the federal government are reserved to the states and ultimately to the people. We free citizens collectively allow government into our own divinely endowed private sphere. Government exists because we permit it to exist. We are not subjects of Washington. We are citizens of a constitutional republic. We are the senior partner. Government is not.

Our reasons to love America are not abstract. America has no class in the old European sense. We are not ruled by nobles, monarchs or hereditary aristocracies. There is no government-sanctioned caste system and no official aristocracy standing between a free citizen and his or her potential. We can ascend or descend through society’s cultural and economic ranks with far fewer limitations than almost anywhere else on earth. This healthy pride is natural, ongoing and necessary. It is not shameful to say that our way of life is better than most. It is true.

America remains the world’s greatest hospital, producing extraordinary physicians, nurses, hospitals, research institutions, medicines and medical innovation. Our medical research, pharmacological advances and practical hands-on applications of medicine remain a perpetual engine of innovation and life-saving technology. Funded by public and private money, American medicine draws researchers and patients worldwide and saves countless lives. Our imperfect system is still a radical blessing because America remains a place where world leaders, the wealthy, the poor, the desperate, the sick and the injured still seek care, treatment and hope.

America remains a liberty, truth and evil-fighting ass-kicking military machine that no enemy should ever test, with more than 800 military installations across approximately 70 countries, unmatched naval power, strategic air power, intelligence capabilities and global reach. Our military is backed by the world’s most powerful economy, extensive natural resources, cutting-edge technology and a Constitution our men and women in uniform swear to defend. American strength since World War II has helped prevent a third world war or nuclear holocaust. Never in world history has a nation held so much power and, however imperfectly, used so much of it to preserve freedom for itself and others.

America is black and green forever, blessed with extraordinary reserves of oil, natural gas, coal, fresh water, timber, copper, iron, uranium, fertile farmland and nearly 9.8 million square kilometers of remarkable geography. Even more impressive, America produced a record 13.6 million barrels per day of crude oil in 2025 and remains the world’s largest producer of oil, proving once again that free people, innovation, private property and free enterprise outperform centralized government. Resources alone do not create prosperity. Free citizens using resources wisely create prosperity.

Our founding documents recognize that our rights come from our Creator, not from government. God still rocks and rolls on just fine in our America because faith, family and moral responsibility remain central to the American story. We still enjoy free speech, art, comedy and rock and roll, where citizens openly criticize leaders without fear of imprisonment or execution. That freedom remains one of civilization’s rarest gifts. Americans can mock presidents, challenge institutions, write books, make films, sing songs, speak truth, offend power and push the envelope because free speech is not a side issue in America. It is the first issue.

Who needs a vacation? It is American business 24-7. We grind. We build. We innovate, and we love it. Americans have an intense work ethic. Our direct byproducts are productivity, entrepreneurialism and creative commerce. Statistics show Americans work approximately 137 hours more each year than the Japanese, 260 hours more than the British and nearly 500 hours more than the French. Hard work, productivity and entrepreneurialism continue driving the American Dream for those willing to risk failure in pursuit of success rather than relying upon an ever-growing leviathan of government.

And in our American free market, money is our greatest tool, not our destination. It creates freedom, opportunity and the ability to give more, build more, serve more, seek God more fully and create lives of meaning. America’s economy alone is roughly $28.75 trillion, representing approximately one quarter of global nominal GDP. That productivity belongs to our citizens, not to our government. Contrary to Barack Obama’s famous remark, yes, we built that.

Gratitude remains our greatest weapon in protecting America and preserving the greatest constitutional experiment in human history. Gratitude is thankfulness, good will, favor, praise and celebration. To deny gratitude is to deny America itself. After gratitude, action must follow. So on her 250th Birthday, thank you, God. Thank you, America. Thank you to every Founder who imagined her, every soldier who defended her, every worker who built her, every family who strengthened her and every citizen who carried her forward. Thank you to those who came before us, and thank you to those who will carry her into the future, protecting her precious purpose in this big and fractured world.

Happy Birthday, America.