Table of Contents
- Introduction: The Mirror and the Midlife Crisis
- The Trigger: A Halftime Show and a Crisis of Identity
- The 1898 Blind Spot: A Crisis of Memory
- What is an American? The Myth of the “Natural” Root
- The 1960s: The Great Growth Spurt
- Conclusion: The Path to Acceptance
- Glossary of Terms
- Bibliography & References
Introduction: The Mirror and the Midlife Crisis
I am sixty-three years old, and like many men my age, I have a bit of a habit of “rewriting” my own history when I talk to my twenty-three-year-old son. I often find myself telling him stories about what a phenomenal athlete I was in my teens and twenties. I’ll tease him, telling him I could take him to the backyard right now and beat him in a game of basketball, or I’ll challenge him to a race, reflecting on just how fast I was when I was a “physical specimen.” In those moments, I am reaching back for the version of myself that was fast, strong, and uncomplicated.
But then I catch my reflection, or I feel the ache in my knees, and I am reminded of reality. The truth is, while I miss the physical prowess of my youth, I deeply appreciate the man I am at sixty-three. I am a much wiser and more experienced man than that twenty-year-old athlete ever was. I have learned many lessons over the years that make me a better person than I was. I am more empathetic because my age makes me appreciate my youth but also understand my past shortcomings. I wouldn’t actually trade the wisdom I have now for the speed I had then.
Nations, like individuals, grow and mature. Their direction is determined by their upbringing and the pivotal experiences they encounter along the way. America’s upbringing has brought it to this exact moment. But right now, a segment of the country is behaving like a man in the throes of a desperate, frantic midlife crisis. It is a state where an individual recognizes how they have matured but fights with everything they have to reach back to the time of their youth—clinging to the image of the “physical specimen” they remember, no matter how many mistakes were made back then, and no matter how much they have to deny the reality of the body they actually inhabit today.
The Trigger: A Halftime Show and a Crisis of Identity
The catalyst for this reflection was a post shared by a cousin of mine—a Black conservative, a Republican, and a Christian. He reposted a message from a group called the “Republican Patriots” regarding the Super Bowl halftime show featuring Bad Bunny, a Puerto Rican superstar. The post was a textbook example of cultural panic:
“The Super Bowl halftime picking Bad Bunny has a ton of us fired up. It’s clear they’re pushing that woke agenda hard—putting someone front and center whose whole vibe clashes with the traditional American values most fans grew up with… Instead of something that unites the heartland, we get another forced ‘inclusivity’ moment that feels more like a lecture than entertainment… That’s why so many are turning to Kid Rock instead. Straight-up American rock, no apologies, no agenda—just high-energy patriotism and pride in this country.”
As an engineer, I tend to look at the mechanics of how things fit together. When I read those words, I don’t see a political manifesto; I see a “National Dementia.” I see a segment of the population looking at a 249-year-old nation and demanding it put on the clothes it wore when it was a child. They view the presence of a Puerto Rican on a national stage as a “lecture” because they refuse to acknowledge that the “student”—this Republic—matured long ago.
The 1898 Blind Spot: A Crisis of Memory
The most telling symptom of this midlife crisis is the “1898 Blind Spot.” To label Bad Bunny’s performance as “forced inclusivity” is to suffer from a profound historical amnesia.
The irony was captured perfectly in a recent clash of perspectives on social media. After media figure Megyn Kelly posted a critique of the halftime show, content creator, Jaekicho responded with a historical breakdown that exposed the fragility of her argument. Kelly had argued:
“Football is ours. They call it American football and the halftime show and everything around it stays quintessentially American. Not Spanish, not Muslim, not anything other than good old-fashioned American apple pie. There should be a meatloaf, maybe some fried chicken, and an English-speaking performer.”
But here is the mechanical failure in that logic. Jaekicho pointed out that even the game itself is an immigrant: “American football stems from English rugby and wasn’t normalized until the 1880s. It’s a religion here, but the foundation is British.” Furthermore, Puerto Rico became a part of the United States in 1898. Its people have been U.S. citizens since 1917. This means that Puerto Ricans became part of the American fabric almost at the exact same time the game of football—which “stems from English rugby”—was being normalized in its American form. Bad Bunny is a U.S. citizen. To treat him as an “other” or a “woke imposition” is like a 60-year-old man looking at a limb he has had since he was a toddler and claiming it is a foreign object.
The “Patriots” are rejecting the realization of who they actually are. They claim to love the country, but they reject the version of the country that has existed since the Spanish-American War. They are not protecting “American values”; they are protecting an edited, narrow memory that excludes 128 years of our own legal and territorial reality.
What is an American? The Myth of the “Natural” Root
This midlife crisis is fueled by the myth of the “natural” root—the idea that there is a “pure” American identity that exists apart from immigration or global influence. But as Jaekicho brilliantly dismantled, if we look at the “DNA” of the very things Megyn Kelly calls “quintessentially American,” the myth falls apart.
Take that “Good old-fashioned American apple pie.” Apples aren’t native to North America; they originated in Kazakhstan. The recipe came from Dutch settlers. The wheat for the crust came from the Middle East. The cinnamon and nutmeg come from Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
Even the “meatloaf and fried chicken” Kelly craves are “third culture” outcomes. Meatloaf was brought by German and Italian immigrants in the late 1800s. Fried chicken was a fusion of Scottish immigrants (who fried in lard) and the culinary genius of West African enslaved cooks who seasoned and perfected it.
So, what is an American?
Almost every cell in this national body came from somewhere else. The only people whose roots are indigenous to this soil are the Native Americans. Everyone else falls into two categories:
- The Seekers: The immigrants who, like the ingredients of the pie, arrived from every corner of the globe to create something new.
- The Captives (Enslaved Descendants): Those of us whose ancestors were forced into this body against our will, yet whose labor, culture, and endurance became the very muscle and bone of the nation.
To suggest that a Spanish-speaking citizen is “un-American” while eating “American” fried chicken is a psychological disconnect. America does not create culture from scratch; it gathers the world and bakes it into something new. To deny this is to deny the very recipe of our existence.
The 1960s: The Great Growth Spurt
In the life of an individual, your twenties are often when you finally decide who you are going to be. For America, the 1960s was that decade. This was our moral and demographic growth spurt.
During my childhood in the 60s, the country underwent two massive shifts:
- The Moral Maturation (Civil Rights): We finally began to codify the equality we had only performed on paper. We admitted that the Enslaved Descendants were not just “helpers” in the kitchen, but full owners of the house.
- The Demographic Evolution (1965 Immigration Act): This law abolished the “National Origins Formula” that favored Northern Europeans. It was the moment America stopped pretending to be a European outpost and accepted its identity as a global hub.
The “Midlife Crisis” we see today is a reaction to these two events. To the “Patriots,” the 1960s was a “betrayal.” They look at the 1965 Act as the moment the “simple” America of their childhood was stolen. But you cannot “un-grow.” The 1960s ensured that by the time I reached 63, the country would be a vibrant, multi-lingual, and multi-ethnic powerhouse.
Conclusion: The Path to Acceptance
True maturity—whether in a man or a nation—begins when you stop fighting the mirror. As I look at my own life at sixty-three, I know that my value doesn’t come from trying to run as fast as my son; it comes from the perspective, the empathy, and the complex history I’ve gathered. I have learned to appreciate the man I am today over the “physical specimen” I once was.
The “Republican Patriots” and those who echo the rhetoric of exclusion are choosing the path of the crisis. They are standing on the sidelines of the Super Bowl, clutching a vision of “Home” that is as artificial as a movie set. By rejecting a Spanish-speaking American citizen like Bad Bunny, they are essentially trying to divorce a part of their own soul. They are mourning a “pure” past that never existed and fearing a “woke” future that is actually just the present-day reality of a 250-year-old experiment.
The way out of this crisis is acceptance. It is the realization that at 249 years old, America is a more interesting, more powerful, and more honest version of itself than the adolescent version that lived in the shadows of exclusion. We don’t need to “roll with the Motor City Madman” to find our patriotism; we find it by embracing the full, complex recipe of who we have become.
America isn’t losing its identity; it is finally growing into it. And as any 63-year-old will tell you, the best part of getting older isn’t pretending you’re young—it’s finally being comfortable in the skin you’re in.
Glossary of Terms
- 1898 Blind Spot: A term coined here to describe the historical amnesia regarding the Spanish-American War, specifically the point at which Puerto Rico became a U.S. territory.
- Captives (Enslaved Descendants): Refers to the descendants of Africans forced into chattel slavery in the United States, whose labor and culture are fundamental to the nation’s foundation.
- National Origins Formula: A former system of American immigration quotas (abolished in 1965) that restricted immigration from outside of Northern and Western Europe.
- Third Culture Outcome: A cultural product (like fried chicken or apple pie) that results from the blending of multiple different cultures into a new, distinct form.
- Woke Agenda: A contemporary political pejorative used by traditionalists to describe progressive social changes or the acknowledgment of demographic shifts.
Bibliography & References
- Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (Hart-Celler Act): Pub. L. 89-236, 79 Stat. 911. The legislation that ended the National Origins Formula.
- Treaty of Paris (1898): The agreement that ended the Spanish-American War, resulting in Puerto Rico becoming a U.S. territory.
- Jaekicho [Social Media Creator]: Response to Megyn Kelly regarding cultural origins of American food and football. Instagram Link
- Kelly, Megyn: Commentary on Super Bowl Halftime Show and “quintessential” American values. The Megyn Kelly Show.
