Questioning Patriotism
By Michael R. Bowen (10/21/03)
"I think 9/11 gave this generation an identity, and its identity is potentially Fascist. My skin crawls when I think of the first week after 9/11. I was looking out the window and there were people marching down the street carrying flags. It reminded me of spontaneous angry Nazis and I thought, 'Oh, man, we are in a lot of trouble. There's a whole bunch of people who have flags hanging from their cars and who are mistaking fascism for patriotism'." - Ricky Lee Jones, 18 October 2003, in the Guardian (UK)
Seems that every time you challenge liberals these days about their opposition to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, they rise up in high dudgeon and rebuke you for "questioning their patriotism". But why is it that conservatives, when they are unhappy with what our government is doing, wave the flag and declare themselves ashamed of our president, while liberals, when they are the same position, burn the flag and declare themselves ashamed of America?
If patriotism means love of country, then to get at the question we'd have to ask how much America's liberals love their country. Obviously, no one can "love" 300 million people, or a particular shape on a map. When you love your country, you are loving two things: the particular parts of it, which are dear to you, and the idea of your country, the thing it stands for. Of course, everyone has their especially beloved parts of America, and you don't have to love America to be fond of Ann Arbor or Berkeley. Therefore, when we say love of country, we're really talking about loving what it stands for. Liberals don't love what America represents.
The Left likes to point to America's sins: slavery, the Indians, and some of our wars. But let's face it: if the Indians had all the guns, the white people would be on reservations today. If advanced civilization had developed in Africa first, Europeans would have worn chains on plantations in the Congo. If there were ever a Latin American superpower and a third-world America, Che Guevara would have made a career of hunting down American freedom fighters. America's sins and blunders aren't uniquely American; they are merely the product of human nature when wielding power. Yet, the Left decries America's failings and ignores those of, for example, communism. The difference is not that one is sinful and the other saintly; the difference is that one is America, and to be condemned, and the other is not.
War can be honorably waged for the defense of other nations, but is not always wise. Each case must be judged in the light of the day's geopolitical realities. Fighting to defend our country, on the other hand, is not optional. But for the Left, war in defense of America, war to enhance our security, is never acceptable. The only resort to arms they can endorse is one, like Kosovo or Mogadishu, in which no possible American interest is served and no enhancement of our national security is likely. If they cannot support war for love of country, is it really so unreasonable to conclude that they don't love her?
Ever notice how when Democrats campaign for president, they only talk about how rotten this country is? How we oppress smaller nations abroad and weaker citizens at home? How our foreign policy is based on deception and greed, and how we are held in contempt by the enlightened nations of the world? These are not the words of a loving parent who, while seeing all the faults, still finds much to love and praise in his child. Contrast the words of today's Democratic candidates with the sunny vision of men like Ronald Reagan and George Bush, who see America as fundamentally good, and are willing to fight to save her.
The conservative speaks of all the good things America is, and wants to defend them. The liberal loves all the things America is not: a nation with universal health-care, ever more "progressive" taxes, subservient to the United Nations; a nation with no guns in private hands, a nation you could traverse from coast to coast and never hear the name of God. If you love all the things America is not, and care more for them than for all the things she is, then, no: you don't love America. Not really.
After September 11, Katha Pollitt's daughter wanted to fly the flag from her bedroom window. Pollitt refused, because for her the flag means all the loathsome things America represents: racism, jingoism, sexism, and oppression. For Ricky Lee Jones, Katha Pollitt, Susan Sontag, and Barbara Kingsolver, waving the flag means fascism. Television news anchors refused to wear flag buttons after 9/11 because they thought it would make them appear biased. How is it a mark of bias to show love for your country?
There's a good reason why the flag is burned by liberals, and not by conservatives. It's because the flag means America to both, but one loves her and the other doesn't.
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