On Election Day, I went to see a film that seeks to preach about the Spirit of America, An American Carol. This is a David Zucker comedy roughly based on Dickens's A Christmas Carol. Here, however, it's not about Christmas, but the Fourth of July. As children sit eating Grandpa's inedible barbeque, they get him to tell them a story. He tells of the guy who tried to get rid of the Fourth of July.

It turns out that this is about a documentary filmmaker very similar in every way to Michael Moore (the character's name is Michael Malone). Malone has made several anti-American documentaries. He is approached by a group of inept terrorists to make a recruitment film. But Malone, like Ebenezer Scrooge, is visited by some spirits, first by JFK, then by General George Patton, George Washington, and the Angel of Death. His eyes are opened to the real Spirit of America. The terrorists are stymied. Life is good. God bless America.

Zucker is known for parody and broad slapstick humor. Michael Moore's work certainly is ripe for parody. Unfortunately, the film only spends a couple of minutes making fun of his documentary style. The rest is more of a personal parody, which often seems more like attack than humor.

Part of the reason behind the film, according to production notes, is that "Zucker wanted to examine what it meant to be a proud American." That is a worthy goal. Watching the film on Election Day gave me a chance to reflect on what it means to be a proud American. After all, it was a day when record numbers were taking part in an historic election—historic not only because we elected our first African American president, but because of the sense of hope which drove so many new voters and tired voters to take part. But then, every election is historic in some sense. Each election we continue a process by which we have had peaceful transitions of power for over 200 years. But it is also a process that involves conflicts of ideas and values.

The Spirit of America that Zucker seems to be pushing is one where everyone supports the government whether right or wrong. It tries to portray "real American values" as a kind of homogeneous mindset. Protest is rejected as having any validity. It echoes the kind of "our opponents hate America" or "real Americans vote Republican" type rhetoric that occasionally came out during the campaign.

Such a view fails to understand America as a place where ideas and values are open to debate. America is not the home of sheep that go wherever some leader decides to take us. The reason we vote every four years is precisely because we want the opportunity to change the direction we will go. Real Americans question the government. Real Americans value their rights (and the rights of others) and do not give them up freely. Real Americans believe that America can always be made better. That is the America we can take pride in.