Is our national character still guided by “the land of the free and home of the brave” spirit penned by Francis Scott Key in our Star-Spangled Banner?

Apparently, not so much after all.

A March independent Quinnipiac University survey asked 1,374 adult Americans what they would do if they were in the same position as Ukrainians are now; stay and fight or leave the country?

More than half of the Democrats (52%) disgracefully responded that they would cut and run if the U.S. homeland were invaded, while only a pathetic 40% said they would stick around.

And whereas Republicans did better, with more than two-thirds (68%) saying they would stand their ground, one in four sunshine patriots said they would abandon that don’t-tread-on-me spirit and head for the hills.

Contrast these sentiments with psychologically wrenching raw television footage witnessing desperate Ukrainians who are defiantly fighting, dying, enduring mass destruction to defend precious liberties against an overwhelming larger, heavily armed, and savagely brutal aggressor.

Such commitments and willing sacrifices should serve as a timely reminder regarding what many complacent Americans seem at great risk of forgetting; that freedom doesn’t come free.

Instructive Ukraine images of true leadership come to view as well.

We see a courageous 44-year-old former stand-up comic and sitcom actor demonstrate stirring real-life examples of determination and heroism at its best.

Immediately following the invasion, dressed in no-nonsense khaki T-shirt and fatigues, President Zelenskyy posted a starkly serious and vitally inspirational cellphone video message to his besieged populace: “We aren’t afraid of anything. We aren’t afraid of Russia.”

Then, after being targeted for assassination by at least three known Russia-sponsored attempts and offered safe transport by the U.S. Embassy out of the country, Zelenskyy replied: “The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride.”

Again, contrast this with our leader who de-weaponized American energy security in defense against climate change and hops regular weekly rides aboard Air Force One to his media-invasion-protected Wilmington, Delaware bunker.

Meanwhile, in a single year, the Biden administration has transformed America from being energy independent and a net oil and gas exporter to an energy pauper that had recently pleaded with that same Russia, which is devastating Ukraine’s cities and neighborhoods to supply more oil amid self-inflicted U.S. and NATO ally shortages.

Also, wasn’t Ukraine supposed to be a corrupt country we might imagine unworthy of such remarkable popular defense? Think Burisma, for example, the murky Ukraine gas company that the previous government was investigating while former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter served on its board.

Recall that Joe, who was serving as our nation’s top Ukraine government policy contact at the time had bragged on video about holding back $1 billion in U.S. aid to the country if then-President Petro Poroshenko, didn’t immediately fire the lead prosecutor, Viktor Shokin.

It was also clear from emails in possession of the FBI that in addition to cashing in on the $50k/month board position with Burisma, records found on a laptop Hunter abandoned at a Wilmington, Delaware, repair shop reveal an even more extensive history of Biden family foreign influence peddling when Joe was serving as vice president.

One email shows a $3.5 million wire transfer to Hunter from Elena Baturina, the richest woman in Russia and the widow of Yury Luzhkov, the former mayor of Moscow.

Some other emails reveal plans to use the Biden name to profit from a company with ties to the Chinese Communist government, earmarking a 20% equity stake in a venture for Hunter, with another “10 held by H for the big guy” who is suspected to be Joe Biden.

The deal was hashed out while Joe was still VP, involving a country that is well recognized as America’s second greatest existential threat … next to climate change of course.

Nearly all broadcast, print, and social media ignored or entirely quashed the New York Post’s scandalous “laptop from Hell” story prior to the 2020 presidential election.

So, did those media omissions and interferences possibly influence the results?

According to a Media Research Center sponsored survey of 1,750 Biden voters taken by The Polling Company in seven swing states (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin), of which six (all but North Carolina) were called for Joe, awareness of what the Post reported would have flipped all the others to a Trump blowout.

Of eight major stories, MRC’s analyses showed liberal media had failed to cover, 82% of Biden voters were unaware of at least one, and 17% said they would have abandoned the Democratic candidate if they had known about one or more of these.

Even more, Biden voters (45.1%) were unaware of the Hunter Biden laptop scandal. Of these, 9.4% said had they known; they would have abandoned their Biden vote, consequentially flipping the remaining six swing states to Trump with 311 electoral votes to 227.

Eighteenth-century French philosopher Joseph De Maistre is credited with saying it first: “In a democracy, the people end up with the government and leaders they deserve.”

The late American social critic and satirist H.L. Mencken put it more acerbically: “People deserve the government they get, and they deserve to get it good and hard.”

And what about America? Don’t we deserve better government leadership also?

In choosing whom we most trust to lead our future, let’s first come to terms with what we are willing to risk defending the rich liberties we so, fortunately, enjoy right now.

If foreign shock troops invaded this country, leveled your hometown, and bombed hospitals and schools, would you be clear regarding what is truly worth fighting for?

Let those in Ukraine who suffer, sacrifice, and die for liberties we all too readily take for granted serve as urgent reminders.