After Zohran Mamdani said that America is “unfinished,” JD Vance denounced him for not showing enough gratitude to the country. Now, as with much of what Vance says, this is little more than a racial dog whistle. Both Vance and Mamdani have ideas about how America should change, but the vice president strikes me as a lot angrier at and more dissatisfied with the state of the country.
Setting all that aside, today is Thanksgiving, and since gratitude is the theme of the day, this episode got me thinking about what it means to be grateful towards a nation.
Usually, you express gratitude towards someone who has done something on your behalf. You might say you are grateful to your parents for bringing you into the world, or a boss for giving you a job, or a stranger for returning your wallet.
Does it similarly make sense to say that you are grateful to the United States of America? It is true that, if you or your family emigrated and now live a good life, you can attribute your success to the country. And it is possible to be grateful towards abstract ideas or inanimate objects. A person might be grateful for capitalism or sunshine, for example.
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