TFH live on VLR from 2/3 - America Is Beautiful

Had a great program on Vigilant Liberty Radio last night with my guest Doug Mataconis (@dmataconis), an attorney in private practice and prolific blogger at Outside the Beltway. We had a discussion across a wide range of issues, touching often on Doug's expertise – and my layman's interest – in the intersection of politics, law, and the Constitution.


Replay of the full program is below, just click the "play" button to listen or if you prefer to download and listen on your mobile device, click the "Spreaker" name/logo in the player and you'll be taken to the page where you can download the show as an MP3.




If nothing else, I hope you listen to the first fifteen minutes or so where I address the kerfuffle among some in conservative circles over Coca-Cola's Super Bowl ad, which will also be airing in its original and 90-second extended forms during the upcoming Winter Olympics.

I really believe the outrage and criticism directed at Coca-Cola and the production of this ad is so very damaging to our side and is very illustrative about why we lose in the culture wars. The nine young women who gave their voices to this project have done us all a great service, and Coke has been gracious enough to share each of them with us in their full renditions of America the Beautiful.

My favorite of the nine is Naya, who performed the song in Arabic (gasp!). I love it because not only is she a bright, cheerful American child with a beautiful voice, but for the images in the clip of her parents (particularly for three seconds starting at 0:33), who I gather, are naturalized Americans. Their reactions alone to their daughter's performance should change your mind if you think this ad and project did our nation a disservice. Expand it to full size for best viewing.

Naya, from the clip:

When I sing the song, I feel really happy. I feel joyful, I feel, you know, every word that explains "happy". America is one union, but with a mix of cultures and it doesn't matter who you are, we should always be friendly to each other, no matter what difference you have.

Here are the remaining eight performances, listed alphabetically by name of the singer. All of these young women, when speaking, are clearly native English speakers; they are Americans. I hope you take the time to watch all of them.

Carolyn – English

Christy – Keres (a Native American language)

Kennedy – Senegalese-French

Leilani – Tagalog

Ming – Mandarin

Naomi – Spanish

Natalie – Hebrew

Sushmitha - Hindi

Yes. America is beautiful. Thank you Coca-Cola, and thanks again to Carolyn, Christy, Kennedy, Leilani, Ming, Naomi, Natalie, Naya, and Sushmitha.