We could really use more urban patriotism in the US. The idea that Red Team claims to be the “Real America,” and Blue America just said, “yeah you’re right, and America sucks” instead of saying, “no, we’re Real America,” is the most stupid unforced error.

If you want to talk about America being “Great,” the elephant in the room is the Greatest City in the World(TM), New York. The New York metro area alone contains over 5% of the country’s population. Any conception of American identity, the movers and shakers of the history of the country (and the world!), the “melting pot,” great American literature, and so much more has to go back to New York.

Include the LA metro area and you have almost 10% of the country’s population. LA has been so historically dominant in Cinema that “Hollywood” is broadly synonymous with “the film industry.” Cinema is the quintessential American art form, democratizing entertainment for the masses. The “common man” who couldn’t afford tickets to live theatre could always afford to go to the movies. And through our dominance of film and television, we have culturally dominated the world. People in every corner of the world, speaking any language you can imagine, will connect with Americans over having watched our movies and TV shows.

And so on and so on. City regions are where we establish our economic, technological, and cultural dominance. And those are things to be proud of, not to shrink away from and be ashamed of.

And hey, the natural beauty of our countryside is also something to be proud of. So we should preserve that natural beauty by growing our population in these already-urbanized regions with abundant economic opportunities, instead of bull-dozing that natural beauty for more ticky-tacky exurban developments.