Can the Founders’ ideals still inspire and unite the nation 250th years after the Declaration of Independence? Fox News Channel’s Chief Political Anchor and #1 bestselling author Bret Baier makes the case for America, an inspiring defense of our history, values, and national character.
The impossible dream of the United States of America began with a declaration. Years before the Revolution was won, long before the Constitution was created, we were a nation because of our decision to be free.
Though the universal hunger for freedom that endures, these days our country often seems at cross purposes. Our very history is divisive. On one side, there are the unrelenting complaints about all the things we’re getting wrong.
Such critics seem intent on focusing on the darker chapters of our story. On the other side is a sanitized version of history that leaves little room for self-reflection. It’s as if any admission of frailty or failure is an unpatriotic act.
In The Case for America Bret Baier argues that neither of these pictures reflects our reality. To make the case for the nation’s enduring value, he underscores our fundamental character: unity, freedom, resilience. Baier shares his own reflections alongside those of numerous historians, commentators, and business leaders in a moving ode to a nation.
We must simply be conscious that it is absolutely essential to teach the meaning of liberty, to teach the meaning of democracy, to teach the value of being an American. And you begin by teaching history, by teaching how proud so many of our forebears were to defend this country with their lives. Young people should know that. Young people should understand our history as a beginning point.Justice Anthony Kennedy, former associate justice of the Supreme Court
There are a lot of things that divide us as a nation, but one area that should unite us is a shared focus on the future: on possibility, innovation, and creating jobs and opportunity in communities across the country, not just in a few places. That’s why it’s important to highlight examples where people come together around those goals.Steve Case, America Online founder, former chairman of the Smithsonian Institution, and chairman and CEO of Revolution LLC
The United States was built to last. Too many people think we’re on the verge of collapse. And I feel that when we get in that mode, we’re not looking at all the adversities of the past. The key thing is to always remember that our own times aren’t uniquely perilous. It can feel like every day, this is the biggest crisis that ever hit, particularly in a rather new world of internet and social media. But a lot of things are working well in the United States right now. And those that aren’t, we can fix.Douglas Brinkley, Distinguished historian, author and professor
Great powers don’t mind their own business. They try to shape the international system. And either we shape it or somebody else shapes it. I think for a host of reasons, including our values and the way Americans have succeeded, we want to be the ones to shape the international system—not China, not Russia, and certainly not the chaos of the law of the jungle, which has too often been the nature of international politics.Condoleezza Rice, Diplomat, former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, and director of Stanford University’s Hoover Institution
Even when things were tough, we believed we could solve problems. We believed we could find a way through them. That’s what led to the creation of the Peace Corps, which my dad led, and the creation of the Special Olympics movement. I mean, look at what my mom saw: 200,000 Americans in institutions, locked up forever, turned away from society. And she said, no, no. We can do better. That’s the American spirit. It’s not that we always will agree. It’s that we have confidence in the ideal of America. We have the hope that the core ideal of our country is strong enough to overcome whatever divisions or problems we’re facing.Tim Shriver, Educator, activist, chairman of the Special Olympics, and founder of UNITE.
We came through the founding of the republic under very trying circumstances. We came through two world wars. We came through a civil war. We came through a Great Depression. We came through many recessions and many challenges throughout our time, and here we are, 250 years later, going strong and showing the world just how strong we are. I wouldn’t bet against the spread.Brit Hume, Journalist, commentator, and former anchor of Special Report with Brit Hume on Fox News


