I just saw an ad for MSNBC that said “America is complicated. That’s why our national anthem is a question.” I am having a hard time finding a link to the actual video, but to document the first line, I give you this corroborating evidence.
But actually, that is demonstrably false. Look at the national anthem yourself, including the parts you probably haven’t sung. And this is quite ironically revealing.
Yes, the first verse is a question (Oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave….?).
But the second verse is the answer (“Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam, In full glory reflected now shines in the stream: ‘Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave, O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!” ).
The third verse is a diatribe and ridicule against the people attacking the US (“Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution. No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave”), and…
The Fourth verse is a declaration of thanksgiving to God and a prayer for future victories in battle when free men go off to war to save their loved homes (“Blessed with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land, praise the power that made, and preserved us a nation”).
So….. …America is complicated. On that I won’t disagree. But in both this commercial and in most of MSNBC’s reporting (and in most of the ways that liberals who lean towards MSNBC’s viewpoint believe), America is not complicated in the way they think.