My love affair with America — I cockblocked Norman Podhoretz — began in 1998 in college. Like most punk rockers of leftist Jew York City parentage, I had been of the firm opinion that America blew. I could understand why Jimmy Gestapo would write a song like "America Rules" — ha ha ha it’s funny to tweak the leftism of the scene and besides, the man’s last name is Gestapo. And I had a weird fixation with the Supreme Court after Antonin Scalia spoke at my high school. But if we’re down to what LBJ called the "nut-cutting," the suckiosity of America was a truth held to be self-evident, and I wasn’t trying to hear otherwise.

In 1998, however — actually it could have been 1997 or 1999; we were out drinking until early this morning — Sam McPheeters recorded the most important 5" record of all time. McPheeters, the genius behind Born Against and the Men’s Recovery Project, decided to introduce punk rock to the grandeur and straight-gangster lean of the American Revolution. He enlisted the Catholic Church to handle the flipside, put on his wig and tricorner, recorded a reading of the "Give Me Liberty" speech from St. Johns Church in March 1775 and released Sam McPheeters As Patrick Henry. Holy fuck.

I don’t know when the last time was you read that speech. But really — again, holy fuck. Here’s Henry saying:The declaration from Britain that Massachusetts is in rebellion has put into motion a series of circumstances removing all ambiguity from the crown’s intentions; we have no choice but to fight; and if we die, fuck it, I’mma die shooting.

McPheeters did a couple things with As Patrick Henry, which I can’t find an embeddable MP3 of but is on his MySpace. He implicitly endorsed Gordon Wood’s elegant argument. He unearthed a neglected heritage for punk rock. And he turned me from a leftist into a liberal. I ended up overreacting and going through a year-plus conservative phase, but that’s not McPheeters’ fault.

Happy 4th. Bust some firecrackers for Sam McPheeters, for Patrick Henry, and for President Obama, even if he’s been acting kind of douchey lately.