PBS NEWSHOUR: David Brooks of The Atlantic and Jonathan Capehart of MS NOW join Amna Nawaz to discuss the week in politics, including major Supreme Court decisions and more primary upsets in a busy lead-up to the nation’s 250th anniversary. <\/p>\n
AMNA NAWAZ, PBS NEWSHOUR: Lots more races ahead. We will talk about it some more, but I’m not sure if you heard or not, in the meantime. America’s turning 250 tomorrow. We have been talking about it a little bit. When we step back to see how Americans are looking at their own country right now, we have some insights from our latest PBS News\/NPR\/Marist poll. It found 65 percent of people say that they’re proud to be American; 83 percent say the country has moved away from its founding principles and ideals. And at the same time, some 53 percent of Americans say the country’s best days are still ahead of us. So, David, do you see more reason to be concerned then or more reason to be hopeful? DAVID BROOKS, THE ATLANTIC: I’m hopeful. We go through this. We go through periods every few decades where people just want to burn everything down. And it was brutal to live through those periods, but we get through them. And we get through them because we’re a nation of awesome vitality. We have the vitality to change and to fix things, and we have done it again and again in the 1770s, 1830s, 1890s, the 1960s. So we’re going to do it again. And I have tremendous love for the country, but also tremendous compassion for the country, for the evils we have done, for those who’ve suffered from those evils, and you got to have love for your country and compassion for the country at the same time. NAWAZ: Jonathan, last word to you on this, I should say your birthday weekend. Belated happy birthday to you. JONATHAN CAPEHART, MS NOW: Well, thank you very much. I consider myself to be part of the 65 percent who are proud of their country. It’s times like these when I feel most patriotic, because this is when I get to say, you know what, this country’s mine. This country is mine too. My ancestors were brought here in chains, and they helped build this country and to help to make it a great power. My ancestors, meaning Black community, writ large, marched in the streets demanding that this country live up to its ideals in the 1950s and the 1960s, which made it possible for me to sit here right now. There’s backtracking. There’s regression. But I am optimistic because this is America. How could I not be optimistic when the history that allowed me to be here is going to be the history that is going to keep us going forward?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n