Editorial: Bad Bunny superbowl performance reminds audience that patriotism is unity

By the Smoke Signal Editorial Board

“Together, we are America,” marked the football triumphantly hoisted up by Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny as dozens of flags soared through the air. To the record-breaking 135 million 2026 Super Bowl viewers, this multicultural display was a powerful reminder of the enduring fight for unity and a step towards reclaiming the true definition of patriotism. 

Meanwhile, a competing vision of nationalism emerged on the right, as 5.2 million viewers switched to Turning Point USA’s alternative “All-American Halftime Show” performed by American country rock musician Kid Rock and marketed as a “patriotic event proudly celebrating American culture, freedom, and faith.” Beneath their glittery surface, these words carry the venom of a deep ideological divide — one that has fractured the American identity itself. 

Today, American patriotism has become a grotesque caricature of its true meaning. What once signified the pride of a nation founded on liberty, equality, and natural rights has been perverted into an excuse for bigotry, intolerance, and violence against our neighbors. As of last month, 70,766 people, nearly 70% of whom having no criminal convictions, have been detained by ICE: an organization whose brutality is cloaked in nationalistic rhetoric equating American identity with exclusion. Meanwhile, in political discourse, hatred and polarization are amplified for partisan loyalty and our leaders attack anyone divergent from their all-American ideal — all in the name of honoring and protecting our country.

The bastardization of patriotism has manifested in an overwhelming loss of pride, faith, and shared national identity. According to a 2025 Gallup poll, the percentage of US adults who consider themselves “very” or “extremely” proud to be American is at a record low 58%, 9% lower than the previous year, with almost 70% of US adults no longer believing in the American Dream. The result is a generation hesitant to embrace modern American patriotism in fear of what it has come to signify: a corrupted force that sparks more hate than unity.

Despite drastic division across the country, the fractured American identity has slowly begun to piece itself together again. In the past year, thousands of American citizens have gathered in peaceful protest against immigration enforcement and the Trump Administration, emanating hope in times of nationwide fear. Across the Bay Area, high school students have held dozens of walkouts  against injustice, immigrants and children of immigrants, the majority of our population for generations, rallying their peers in hopes to reclaim “the land of the free” together, a fundamentally patriotic gesture.

As people of all backgrounds join hands to protect their communities, our country’s lost purpose comes to light: a more perfect union upholding security and freedom. Yet, exclusion and hostility stands where a welcoming sense of belonging should be. If being patriotic signifies withstanding the narrowed mindset of supremacy and disregarding rightful security, America loses its intention in granting everyone the pursuit of happiness.

Without humanism at its core, the leading variation of patriotism that has engulfed America is empty, devoid of love that is instead replaced by hatred towards another. Blinded by differences in political affiliation and race, many Americans forgo their responsibility to reason and prioritize morality. Patriotism should encompass these ideals and lead Americans through today’s disillusioning news and political turmoil. If anything, it has always been rooted in some sort of optimistic faith, one that was never intended to be the blind, obstinate faith we see in loyal American homes across the country today.

By welcoming others and practicing sociocultural tolerance, we don’t weaken our national identity but rather strengthen it as the country that was founded and is forevermore sustained by those who come looking for better opportunities. 

Bad Bunny’s words, “the only thing more powerful than hate is love,” rekindled that intended passion in the hearts of Americans, reminding viewers that devotion to this country means devotion to one another — no matter their background or skin color.