Celebrating America — Or Rewriting the Stage?

As America prepares to celebrate its 250th anniversary, a recent halftime show has sparked an important cultural conversation.

In this episode of Live to Shoot – Defending the Second Amendment, Jeff Dowdle examines the messaging behind the Bad Bunny halftime performance — from the prominent display of a Puerto Rican flag closely associated with the independence movement, to the reframing of “God Bless America” to include countries across North and South America rather than the United States itself.

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Transcript

0:14

Well, welcome to the Live Shoot podcast. My name is Jeff Dowell, and I've been a licensed firearms dealer for the last 18 years in this podcast. Talk about all things related to Second Amendment. Anything else going in the world, a sports story or anything else I might find interesting. So welcome, welcome, welcome. Yes. So I often say, I always say we're gonna talk about the Second Amendment or anything else going in the world. So this one's gonna fall into it's a little different fall into anything else going in the world. And I've held off on talking about this, it's been almost a week since the Super Bowl. But I really did want to get a just a few comments out about the, the Bad Bunny. Halftime show and specifically the message it sent because whether you like it or not, you know, cultural shapes, politics Breitbart always said, you know, politics is downstream from culture, so it, it's gonna shape our policy. It shapes, the next generation, how they understand the country. And we're approaching the 250th anniversary of the United States. And it's worth asking serious questions. Are we celebrating country or are we apologizing for it? You know, the Super Bowl, the NFL has embraced it appears this, the 250th anniversary of the US it has been on the end zones. It's, you know, they've had logos. It was that Super Bowl, but. They're, they're sending different messages with their halftime show. You know lemme be clear, you know, artists, they're free to express themself. There's the First Amendment and I'll defend that as strongly as I'm gonna defend the Second Amendment. But freedom of expression does not shield a message from criticism. And the tone of the halftime show was not one of gratitude, unity, or national pride. It leaned heavily on themes of grievance division and cultural defiance. With the backdrop of our 250th anniversary there was a strong undertones of rejection, rejection of institutions, rejection of traditional American imagery, rejection of what many of us would consider foundational foundational val values. Now some will say it's just artistic expression, but symbolism matters when on a global stage. It's used to frame America as oppressive, broken, or fundamentally flawed, especially at a time when we are preparing to celebrate again, 250th anniversary. And now, and I do want to say, I wanna make this other caveat. I did not watch this bad money halftime show alive. I've only seen clips of it. I chose a better choice and that was the turning point. All American halftime show, and if you didn't see it, go back, find it, watch it again. And that's the way we need to celebrate America. And I believe a strong message needs to be sent to the NFL that they need to rethink and. Look at maybe partnering with better people to choose how we're gonna celebrate our halftime shows. That's just one little side note I'm putting here, but let's put all this into perspective. 250 year ago, ordinary citizens stood up against the most powerful empire on earth. They fought not because America was perfect, because they believed it could be free. They risked everything. They for principles that still define us, limited government, individual rights individual liberty, natural rights, the right to speak freely, the right to worship freely, and yes, the right to keep and bear arms. That is the legacy we are preparing to commemorate in 2026. Not a perfect nation, but a nation founded on the radical idea that government answers to the people not the other way around, and that deserves celebration. The contrast when cultural events highlight anger over gratitude, division over unity and cynicism, over pride, it's in the message and the message many Americans heard during that halftime show was this, America is something to critique more than to celebrate. Now, I am not saying America does not have flaws. Of course it does, but there's a different, between striving to improve something we love and constantly framing it something beyond redemption. Our message says, we can make this country better because it is worth preserving. The other says, this country is fundamentally broken. Those are not the same thing. Now, why is this matter to the Second Amendment? You might be asking why? Well, everything. The Second Amendment's, not just about firearms, as I always say, it's about the trust in citizen. It's about individual responsibility. It's about the belief that free people are capable of self governments. If the cultural narrative becomes that America's an inherently unjust, inherently oppressive, inherently flawed at its core, then the fundamental foundational philosophy behind the Bill of Rights becomes to erode because the Bill of Rights assumes something critical that the people are sovereign. And you convince the next generation that the American experiment is something to resent rather than defend those rights begin to look optional instead of essential. Celebrating 250 years does not mean ignoring mistakes. It means recognized that no other nation in human history has expanded Liberty, corrected its own injustices and preserved constitutional governance the way the United States had. It's not propaganda, it's historical reality. And when we approach the anniversary, the tone should be one of confident gratitude, not self-loathing. You can love the country and still wanting to improve. You could defend the constitution while acknowledging past failures, but if the cultural drumbeat becomes constant disdain, that affects how young Americans see their own inheritance. Halftone shows reach millions. They're not just entertainment, they're cultural signals. And civic identity shapes voting behavior. If it shapes policy demands, it shapes judicial appointments. Culture is upstream from politics and that's why it matters. And when I look at Bad Bunny here, he was celebrating Puerto Rico and, and, and and the South Americans as, as being the true Americans. And my question is, is. Everybody that seems to want to critique America are these wealthy celebrities that have, the only reason they have their opportunities are because they're in America. If they were doing films in France, they would not be making the money that they're making. Bad money has come to America. He came to America to do the halftime show because he can make a lot more money than he can in Puerto Rico. But anyway, as we moved, yeah, towards this, our 250th anniversary, we have a choice. We can lean into that cynicism, but Bad Bunny has, or we can tell the story of a nation founded on Liberty, flawed, but constantly try trying to live up to its founding ideals. The Revolution was not born from hatred of America. It was born for love of liberty. The distinction is critical, so. Many who place their lives, their fortune and their sacred honor in 1776 did not do so because they despised their homeland. They did it because they believed in self-government. They believed in the dignity of the individual, and they believed in a country worth fighting for. As we approach 250 years, the question is not whether America has imperfections. The question is whether if we still believe in the promise that made it extraordinary. I do so. I thank you. All do too. So I'm Jeff Dole. Thank you for listening to Live To Shoot podcast. Celebrate Liberty, celebrate your Constitutions. You know, stay armed. And until next time, I appreciate listening. Thank you.