This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.

Elmer Davis’s line links political liberty to civic courage. “Land of the free” echoes the American patriotic formula (notably the closing of “The Star-Spangled Banner”), but Davis adds a conditional: freedom is not self-sustaining. It depends on a populace willing to accept risk, sacrifice, and moral resolve—whether in military defense, resistance to tyranny, or everyday public-spiritedness. The aphorism also implies that cowardice, complacency, or fear-driven politics can erode freedom from within, even without external conquest. In that sense, “bravery” functions as a civic virtue: the active, ongoing commitment required to preserve democratic institutions and rights.