This is pretty much a self-indulgent, bourbon-fueled, stream-of-consciousness rant about the rampant confusion over what it means to be an American patriot, that seems to exist among the right-wing authoritarian followers among us. You know the ones. You meet them at the grocery store, or (like my girlfriend this morning) at the gym, or in the workplace. They make sneering remarks about the "Obamination," and rail against "liberals" as if they even knew what the word actually means, beyond the straw-man caricature it has been turned into by a generation’s worth of spin and smears from the smallest minds among us.
There is nothing in this diary related to the election cycle, nor to polls, nor to the news cycle, nor to the many social and political issues that we normally see discussed here. If you’re looking for something topical, check the rec list or the front page. I’m off on another tangent entirely – something I feel is more fundamental. Much of what I am getting off my chest here will seem obvious to those who frequent these parts. Nonetheless, I will speak my peace and leave it to you, fellow travelers, what to make of it. I’m not expecting much, really.
My beef is with the sentiment expressed in the title. "My Country, Right Or Wrong." (Also known by its variant, "America – Love It Or Leave It," and by the derisive label going around for the last few years, the "'blame America first’ crowd"). It’s clear to me that those who spout such simplistic, jingoistic crap have never really given it much thought. Or, they never possessed much thought to give, in the first place.
Let’s take a serious look at this slogan. "My country, right or wrong." The first problem with this is that it is usually expressed as a response to those who are criticizing not their country, but their government (and by extension, its actions). Think for a moment about the sobering fact that there must be, by virtue of the slogan’s ubiquity, vast numbers of alleged Americans who by their own tacit admission can’t tell the difference between their country and their government – a distinction that Mark Twain was writing about 100+ years ago. I wore my country’s uniform, and carried a rifle into a combat zone on behalf of my government and its policies (in the 101st Airborne Division, during Operation Desert Storm). Even then, at age 20, I knew the difference. Why is that so hard?
But that’s not the worst part. In terms of patriotic sentiment, "my country, right or wrong" is the most pathetic statement possible. Especially for an American, who enjoys the bounty of a country founded on Enlightenment ideals that had been, until recently, the envy of the world for two centuries.
UPDATE: Tags edited.
Consider this: any dirt farmer in any piss-ant, postage-stamp sized backwater country in the world can make the same claim, take the same position – "my country, right or wrong," and so doing, instantly put him- or herself on the same footing and moral ground as an American who says it. Why?
Because when you say "my country, right or wrong," you are clearly stating that the very best reason you can come up with, to feel and demonstrate allegiance to your country, is the fact that you live there. You support and believe in your country, for no better reason than that is where you live or where you happened, by accident of birth, to have been born. You are not basing your allegiance on the ideals of your country, or the way it is governed, or the way it treats its people or conducts itself in the world. No. It’s where you happen to hang your hat, and that’s good enough for you.
So this is patriotism? Defined by the same criteria that one might use to decide whom to support in a baseball game?
Bullshit. Every American is entitled to base their patriotism on much more substantial grounds than that. Our forebears invented the first nation where the people, not a monarch, were sovereign. We inherited the first secular state, where everyone is free to worship as they wish (or not at all) without being taxed to support an established state church. We led the world to victory against fascism and communism. We lit the beacon of freedom and rule of law that the rest of the world struggled to emulate since the time of Napoleon. No Kossack should need a history lesson here.
So let me state this clearly: "My Country, Right Or Wrong" is not the sentiment of the American patriot. It is plain. old, garden-variety nationalism – the kind of thinking that, when it took root in other countries, gave birth to two world wars. Any ignorant schmuck in any country in the world can say the same, and without exception it means that the speaker finds nothing special in his or her country to be proud of, other than the fact that the particular piece of dirt where they sleep at night can be found within its borders.
The American patriot does not say, "my country, right or wrong."
The American patriot says, "my country, because my country IS right and is NOT wrong, and can be shown to be so. And when my government diverts my country from the path of what is right, I the patriot will be the first to stand up and call bullshit, and to insist that my country return to the path of what is right."
The American patriot also rejects the false dichotomy of "America – Love it or Leave it," because the American patriot knows that he or she must struggle every day to keep alive those things about America that are worth loving in the first place, above and beyond those of other countries. The American patriot knows that the only true choice is "America – Love it, and work to keep it worth loving by those Americans who follow us." The ideals that made the United States worth two shits more than any other nation require constant reaffirmation, protection, and vigilance. They are not static; they are not eternal; they can be snuffed out much more easily than they were raised up, and from within more easily than from without. For this reason do we dissent, and criticize, and demand that our Constitution be respected. Leaders come and go, governments rise and fall. But the Constitution, and the ideals that underpin it, must endure. When it fails, America fails. That’s the ball game, folks. See the Roman Empire for an example of what I’m talking about.
For in the end, the Unites States of America is not a place, nor a people. It is a set of ideas, that we all allegedly share. If there is a problem with America, it is that the serious contemplation of those ideas and their implications has fallen out of favor, because they require strenuous thinking and intellectual honesty – things which our culture does not seem to value much anymore.
The light of our founders’ wisdom has been dimmed by the conduct of our government of late, and in many ways we are being surpassed by nations who once sought to emulate us. The argument could be made that we are getting exactly what we deserve, for failing to remain attentive to what is important in the governance of a free and democratic republic.
Nonetheless, I believe that the great American experiment is not ended until we decide that it is – or, in our apathy and short-sightedness, we allow the decision to be made for us. This is a pivotal moment in our history, a time when we will decide whether we still value the priceless gifts our founders left us, or whether we will allow the rapacious greed and blind jingoism of a few to squander our legacy.
The Chinese knew what they were about when they coined the curse, "may you live in interesting times."
End of rant. Thanks for indulging me.