What does it mean to be an American? Ask a conservative. | Opinion

What does it mean to be an American? I live in Texas, arguably the most American of all the states, so I think about this question a lot.

Here, it's common to see cowboys on horseback, a woman openly carrying a 9mm pistol while picking up her Starbucks order, or my kids arguing over which barbecue joint is best. The Western spirit runs from the Alamo to the Hill Country to the cobblestone streets of the Fort Worth stockyards. It's romantic, exhilarating and so, so American.

I wondered about this question while watching our European friends marvel at America's conveniences and customs during the World Cup. Many Democrats can't believe that men and women from England, Germany or Scotland would travel all the way here to watch soccer matches and end up falling in love with our food, air conditioning and ice cubes.

America's abundance is easy to admire. What's easier to forget is that prosperity isn't what made America exceptional. Liberty did.

Conservatives are leading the fight to protect our liberties

In much of the world, rights are treated as privileges the government grants to its citizens. In the American system, it's the opposite: Rights are inherent to the individual, and the Constitution exists to dictate what government cannot do to you. It's an extraordinary concept, and one conservatives have committed to upholding.

American liberties such as free speech and the free exercise of religion are more than principles the Founding Fathers declared in 1776. They are fundamental rights that shape everyday life, from the schoolyard to the courtroom to today's fiercest political debates over speech, religion, self-defense and equal protection. Conservatives have consistently stepped up to protect them for all Americans, regardless of political ideology.

The Supreme Court ruled June 30 that under Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, schools can determine eligibility for female sports based on biological sex. Writing for the majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh noted that "in the past six years, 27 states have enacted laws maintaining female sports for biological females."

All 27 had Republican-led legislatures.

Montana offers a similar example: In 2025, Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed the Free to Speak Act, which bars public schools and state agencies from disciplining students or employees for declining to use a person's preferred pronouns or refusing to call them by a name other than their legal one.

Protecting women and girls shouldn't be a partisan issue, but it has become one, with progressive groups like the ACLU often leading the charge in pushing transgender policies that erode the safety and privacy women and girls deserve under the law. Still, conservatives have stood up for all women and girls, defending their enshrined rights.

Conservative legal organizations and Republican officials have continued to successfully challenge state firearm restrictions in court, protecting our Second Amendment rights in the process. In 2025, the Republican-controlled Congress and President Donald Trump enacted legislation reducing the federal tax on items regulated under the National Firearms Act of 1934 to $0, while leaving registration requirements in place.

Meanwhile, Democrats at the state and federal level continue to chip away at Americans' right to bear arms.

Republican state officials have continued defending and expanding religious liberty protections following Supreme Court decisions such as Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, which strengthened protections for individual religious expression by public employees.

Progressives, especially in higher education, have been too eager to quash these rights in favor of leftist political ideology, even when courts or litigation have forced them to reverse course. Religious liberty shouldn't be a partisan issue, and all Americans should enjoy this right.

With liberty and justice for all

Conservatives have remained consistently dedicated to preserving these constitutional freedoms for all Americans, regardless of political party. Without these efforts, Americans' rights wouldn't be as strong as they are today.

America's abundance, whether it's Texas barbecue, Buc-ee's, cowboy boots, or the countless traditions and industries that define any other state, is incredible. But that prosperity is an outpouring of something deeper: the first principles on which the nation was founded.

As we celebrate America's 250th anniversary, we should remember that without liberty, and the individual rights secured through extraordinary sacrifice, there would be no America to admire. The Revolution was not romantic or easy. It was a desperate struggle by brave men and women against a powerful king waging war on them.

The goal wasn't to build a country that would one day invent the iPhone, beam Starlink satellite internet service to nations in need, or boast the world's largest gross domestic product and most advanced military. The goal was to secure for "we the people" rights already God-given: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

In this endeavor, Americans built the most prosperous and powerful republic in history.

This is what it means to be an American.

Nicole Russell is an opinion columnist with USA TODAY. She lives in Texas with her four kids. Sign up for her newsletter, The Right Track, and get it delivered to your inbox.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What does it mean to be an American? Ask a conservative. | Opinion

Reporting by Nicole Russell, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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This story was originally published July 2, 2026 at 1:03 AM.