Recently in the midst of all my preparations for moving to another state (unfortunately from one deep red bastion to another) I was appalled and angered by the latest statements from the current occupant of the white house.I was so angered by his statements that i was moved to write this my first story.
After beginning the week with clearly racist attack that boiled down to ‘Why don’t you go back where you came from …’ [anyone old enough knows how that phrase is ended] he doubled down by trying to shift the focus from race to patriotism:
The Washington Post reported: “President Trump broadly declared Friday that no one should criticize the United States while he is president, part of a renewed attack on four minority congresswomen whom he has targeted as un-American.”
“Trump said Friday that criticism of the United States is unacceptable and that the four congresswomen “can’t get away with” it.
“I can tell you this, you can’t talk that way about our country, not when I’m the president,” he told reporters outside the White House.
Asked about his unhappiness with the rally chant, Trump said: “You know what I’m unhappy with? I’m unhappy with the fact that a congresswoman can hate our country.
I found myself yelling at the television in reaction to these statements.
I cannot believe that we are going to return to the jingoistic patriotism of my youth. As a child of the 60s and early 70s I clearly remember the phrases “America love it or leave it!” and the ever popular “My country right or wrong.” These were always directed at critics of the government and establishment: Hippies / Anti-war protestors / Civil rights activists. This attitude was often coupled with comments of “Why don’t you go back where you came from, ***!”
Patriotism should never be used as a cudgel to silence dissent!
Mark Twain said of Patriotism:
I would teach patriotism in the schools, and teach it this way: I would throw out the old maxim, ‘My country, right or wrong,’ etc., and instead I would say, ‘My country when she is right.’ Because patriotism is supporting your country all the time, but your government only when it deserves it [emphasis added.]
So I would not take my patriotism from my neighbor or from Congress. I should teach the children in the schools that there are certain ideals, and one of them is that all men are created free and equal. Another that the proper government is that which exists by the consent of the governed.
March 16, 1901 - a meeting of the Male Teachers Association of the City of New York.
The blind acceptance of this idea that anyone that criticizing the government, “Hates America” and that ideas not pure unregulated free market capitalism are “socialist” or even “Communist” is terrifying. The right to criticize the government is one of the fundamental cornerstone principles on which this nation was founded and one of the most AMERICAN of values. Howard Zinn provided an excellent definition of patriotism that emphasizes this fact:
If patriotism were defined, not as blind obedience to government, nor as submissive worship to flags and anthems, but rather as love of one's country, one's fellow citizens (all over the world), as loyalty to the principles of justice and democracy, then patriotism would require us to disobey our government, when it violated those principles.
Unfortunately we have allowed the right wing conservatives in this country to wrap themselves in the holy star spangled banner, crown themselves as the arbiter of what is patriotic and surf the adoring almost magical chants of “USA!USA!USA!” and “Send her back!” to I fear four more years of this idiot. I am even more afraid that four more years of Republic control of the government will end the republic as we know it.
“Criticism and activism working towards improving the nation is Patriotic.” George McGovern - US Senator from SD 1960-1968 & 1974-1980 and Democratic Presidential candidate in 1972