Listen to me -- ALL of you out there! You were told by this man -- your HERO -- that America is the greatest country in the world!
He told you that Americans were the greatest people -- that America could be refined like silver, could have the impurities hammered out of it, and shine more brightly! He went on about how precious America was -- how you needed to make sure it remained great! And he told you anything was justified to preserve that great treasure, that pearl of great price that is America!
Well, I say America is nothing! Without its ideals -- its commitment to the freedom of all men, America is a piece of TRASH! A nation is NOTHING! A flag is a piece of CLOTH!!
I fought Adolf Hitler not because America was great, but because it was fragile! I knew that liberty could as easily be snuffed out here as in Nazi Germany! As a people, we were no different from them!
When I returned, I saw that you nearly DID turn America into nothing! The only reason you're not LESS than nothing...
...is that it's still possible for you to bring freedom back to America.
From What If #68: What If...Captain America Were Revived Today?, a speculative Marvel spin-off that envisioned a future in which a false American hero led the country astray.
I wanted some words of encouragement and the irony of this 30-year-old comic spoke to me.