Welcome back to Sunday Night in America. A few things stir the soul, quite like watching a veteran remove his hat or place her hand over her heart and recite the pledge or sing our national anthem. So many people have sacrificed for this country. And yet a Fox News poll shows pride in America has dropped dramatically. Why? Just a decade ago, nearly 90% of Americans said they were extremely proud. Today, it's below 70%, which is near a record low. So what What happened? I rarely voted with congressman Seth Moulton, but I was always grateful for his service to our country. I didn't always agree with John McCain or even congressman Sam Johnson. But watching those former POWs try to put on their jackets after years of being beaten and tortured, has to move you. Dan Crenshaw lost an eye and nearly lost the other serving our country, and yet some people who never came near a uniform have tried to belittle him. When did that become okay? Can we be grateful for someone's service and still respectfully disagree on policy? Can we count our blessings and still try to make this country even better than it is?

Joining us is Florida congressman Mike Walsh from House Intel Foreign Affairs and Arm Services, who also served in uniform. So let me start by thanking you for your service. Congressmen, we're not a perfect country, but the preamble to our Constitution says we're trying in order to form a more perfect union. So there's so much to be proud of. Why the drop in patriotism?

Yeah, Trey, I think if you go back the decade since the survey that you mentioned where you had 90% were proud of the country, it's in some ways a little bit understandable if you take a step back and look at the housing crisis, you look at eight years of the Obama administration literally going around the world and apologizing for the past sins of America. You look at 90% negative coverage of Trump when he came in and tried to fix things. Then look where we are now. Then they go through the COVID lockdowns only to find out it was made up. But one of the things that the COVID lockdowns exposed was the rot in our educational system, and that all the way down into elementary school, this generation is being taught that America is inherently misogynist, racist, colonialist, and a force for bad. Around the world and in their lives. So you stack all of that together. I don't think it should surprise too many people why you're seeing a decline in patriotism. Now, what do we do about it? Well, Number one, we have to get our educational system back. But number two, I think we need more veterans in our political system.

We've gone from a high in the '70s of 75% vets in Congress to by 2020 was 15%. We've reversed that in the last few years, but we have a long way to go. Then finally, Trey, I think we need to get back to national service. We need to make America serve again. You graduate high school, that doesn't have to be in uniform, and it doesn't have to be mandatory. You can go in national parks, inner city tutoring, rural medicine, FEMA Volunteer Corps, or the service. But you learn leadership, discipline, followership, teamwork, and you do it with fellow Americans who don't look like you, and you get that sense of understanding like the greatest generation had. I think there's a lot we can and will be doing going forward to make America serve and appreciate each other again.

Congressman, I know you have traveled the world, both in uniform and as a member of Congress. To me, there's nothing that makes you appreciate this country quite like going to another one.

No, you're absolutely right. I was just at Normandy, Trey, where I led a group of congressmen to jump over D-Day out of a World War II airplane to commence our forefathers. I came across a charity that was bringing kids from inner city over to Normandy and talking to the French in Normandy who are thanking us for their freedom, saying, Welcome to our liberators. We love you, America. More American flags flying on French homes than we have on American homes on the fourth of July and having that experience. But then also, I want to take some of these protesters at Ivy League schools over to places like Hong Kong now, where if you dare protest, you disappear in the middle of the night. Places in Africa where I've served, where you have no freedoms if you oppose the political party. If you dare run for office, you're put in jail. I talk about weaponization of justice. That perspective, I think, also comes from travel, but also comes from service. When we have less 1% of Americans now stepping up to serve and to serve abroad. I think that is a cause for the real disconnect.

Congresswoman, before I let you go, we've always had our differences in this country, but there were those glorious moments of unity. Do you think unity is even a goal anymore, or are you and I just destined to die in a 50/50 country?

No, Trey, I'm an optimist in the sense of the American people expect to get things done. They expect their government to work for them. At the end of the day, when you're putting results on the table, that's what they expect. But at the same time, government can't solve all their problems. As Conservatives, we need to be talking more about community, neighborhoods, family, church, and country, and service to a cause bigger than yourselves, rather than a sense of entitlement of what is fellow Americans going to pay for for me. I think we could communicate that better. We could put programs in place to do that. For example, I just passed legislation with Senator Wicker in the Senate to drastically expand the number of junior ROTC in high schools. That doesn't mean everybody joins the military out of there, but you learn right place, right time, right uniform, and you have role models that, unfortunately, a lot of kids don't have anymore. There are things we can and should be doing to foster that sense of service, patriotism, but it can't all come from government. It has to come from each other.

Congressman, Mike Walsh from the great state of Florida. Thank you again for your service to our country and for joining us on a Sunday night.

All right. Thanks, Jay. Hey, Sean Hannity here.

Hey, click here to subscribe to Fox News YouTube page and catch our hottest interviews and most compelling analysis. You will not get it anywhere else.