I'm a Republican.
More often than not, the Republican Party at least pretends to represent my views. I'm pro-life, sorta pro-death penalty (certainly an oxymoron), Christian, fiscally conservative, interested in low taxes and personal responsibility and smaller government, and so on.
Of course, more and more often I find that both parties are now essentially the same, except during campaign season when people try to move to the political poles to draw hard-line party votes, while at the same time making some sort of outlandish stand here or there to draw attention.
Anyway, Democratic Senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama recently announced that he was no longer wearing an American flag lapel pin, saying essentially (as I understand it) that wearing the pin acted as some sort of faux patriotism and served as some sort of endorsement of America's post-9/11 actions. Or something like that.
I don't necessarily agree. I've known people who've worn American flag lapel pins for years (more than 6 of them) and do so as a symbol of their pride in our country, or because they find it stylish, or for all sorts of reasons. And I don't get the sense that wearing the pin now is any more an endorsement of our country's "War on Terror" than is a fireworks show on the Fourth of July. Both are displays of national pride, but they say nothing more than that.
But whatever. Everyone's free to have an opinion and to voice it. While I don't personally agree with Obama's reasoning, I think of him as a man of principle, and I believe that he believes what he's saying, and I respect him for acting on his beliefs and defending them in polite, articulate, and (poorly) reasoned discourse. He has an idea, he's sharing it in the marketplace of ideas, and that's all well and good.
On Friday I was watching Fox News at breakfast with some friends, and there was a discussion of this topic between a couple of talking heads. Some red-faced uber-conservative felt the need to accuse Obama of being a "domestic terrorist" for the stance he was taking, as he was undermining America, undermining our troops, trying to support un-American ideals, and so on.
What an effing imbecile. I thought it was telling when even the Fox News guy, at the end of the interview, had a look like "what the hell was that?" on his face. To accuse someone of being un-American for exercising their franchise, voicing their opinion, and acting in concert with their beliefs is to misunderstand America.
The red-faced imbecile was posing the same reactionary argument that serves for the on-going impetus of our current war. To voice concern over the war is un-American and unpatriotic. To raise your opinions is to support the terrorists. To express concern over how the troops are deployed, are dying, are supplied, or are otherwise led is to undermine the morale of our soldiers while feeding the enemy. To act out like an American, and to use your voice as Americans must, is to help the terrorists win.
Patriotism has its place. Jingoism is ludicrous, but it's what the current Administration foists on us while trying to beat us into submission to the inevitable fate of our country, which is to fight whereever, whenever, as long as our political leaders think it advances some purpose that mystifies their constituents.
Oh, dear, I'm raising my voice. I guess that I, too, am now a domestic terrorist. Like Barack Obama, I suppose that my very words provide aide and refuge to Bin Laden and his ilk. My speaking my conscience dishonors my troops, as they paradoxically are supposed to be out there fighting so that people all over the world can enjoy the same freedom to speak their conscience that I supposedly have.
This recent slandering of an American, for behaving like an American should, must not be tolerated. The real domestic terrorists are those that would brow-beat us into relinquishing our rights and responsibilities as Americans, instead forcing us to walk lock-step with Somebody Else's ideals. Even if I don't agree with Barack Obama, I support his stand on the grounds that he's taking one. Our troops die so that he can. He is the patriot in this dialogue, and his patriotism is to be applauded, not reviled.
More often than not, the Republican Party at least pretends to represent my views. I'm pro-life, sorta pro-death penalty (certainly an oxymoron), Christian, fiscally conservative, interested in low taxes and personal responsibility and smaller government, and so on.
Of course, more and more often I find that both parties are now essentially the same, except during campaign season when people try to move to the political poles to draw hard-line party votes, while at the same time making some sort of outlandish stand here or there to draw attention.
Anyway, Democratic Senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama recently announced that he was no longer wearing an American flag lapel pin, saying essentially (as I understand it) that wearing the pin acted as some sort of faux patriotism and served as some sort of endorsement of America's post-9/11 actions. Or something like that.
I don't necessarily agree. I've known people who've worn American flag lapel pins for years (more than 6 of them) and do so as a symbol of their pride in our country, or because they find it stylish, or for all sorts of reasons. And I don't get the sense that wearing the pin now is any more an endorsement of our country's "War on Terror" than is a fireworks show on the Fourth of July. Both are displays of national pride, but they say nothing more than that.
But whatever. Everyone's free to have an opinion and to voice it. While I don't personally agree with Obama's reasoning, I think of him as a man of principle, and I believe that he believes what he's saying, and I respect him for acting on his beliefs and defending them in polite, articulate, and (poorly) reasoned discourse. He has an idea, he's sharing it in the marketplace of ideas, and that's all well and good.
On Friday I was watching Fox News at breakfast with some friends, and there was a discussion of this topic between a couple of talking heads. Some red-faced uber-conservative felt the need to accuse Obama of being a "domestic terrorist" for the stance he was taking, as he was undermining America, undermining our troops, trying to support un-American ideals, and so on.
What an effing imbecile. I thought it was telling when even the Fox News guy, at the end of the interview, had a look like "what the hell was that?" on his face. To accuse someone of being un-American for exercising their franchise, voicing their opinion, and acting in concert with their beliefs is to misunderstand America.
The red-faced imbecile was posing the same reactionary argument that serves for the on-going impetus of our current war. To voice concern over the war is un-American and unpatriotic. To raise your opinions is to support the terrorists. To express concern over how the troops are deployed, are dying, are supplied, or are otherwise led is to undermine the morale of our soldiers while feeding the enemy. To act out like an American, and to use your voice as Americans must, is to help the terrorists win.
Patriotism has its place. Jingoism is ludicrous, but it's what the current Administration foists on us while trying to beat us into submission to the inevitable fate of our country, which is to fight whereever, whenever, as long as our political leaders think it advances some purpose that mystifies their constituents.
Oh, dear, I'm raising my voice. I guess that I, too, am now a domestic terrorist. Like Barack Obama, I suppose that my very words provide aide and refuge to Bin Laden and his ilk. My speaking my conscience dishonors my troops, as they paradoxically are supposed to be out there fighting so that people all over the world can enjoy the same freedom to speak their conscience that I supposedly have.
This recent slandering of an American, for behaving like an American should, must not be tolerated. The real domestic terrorists are those that would brow-beat us into relinquishing our rights and responsibilities as Americans, instead forcing us to walk lock-step with Somebody Else's ideals. Even if I don't agree with Barack Obama, I support his stand on the grounds that he's taking one. Our troops die so that he can. He is the patriot in this dialogue, and his patriotism is to be applauded, not reviled.
1 comment:
You are so right on. I'm a conservative, Christian - and I voted for Bush twice. But after watching the FBI agent who interrogated Hussein for 5 months say that when he was all done that Hussein said he really had destroyed the weapons as the UN inspectors said, but he wanted people to wonder about it because he felt it kept Iran in line and his own people in line. When the interviewer asked the FBI agent if the White House ever asked for a debriefing, the answer was "No." And that was when I realized that my democrat friends were right. Bush lied - and when we finally had the answer about the WMD, they didn't want to know. In "Rush to War," they gave the evidence that the Bush White House and Cheney had prepared the plans for the invasion (and the reconstruction) 8 months before 9/11.
Back to your excellent post, you are so right. And Sean Hannity has become the most virulent of them all. I can't even watch an entire show any more because he just keeps repeating the same 6 points over and over - as Goebels said about propaganda, it's a matter of repeating it over and over until people believe it without question.
And when Michelle Malkin came out with her rant about a paisley scarf, I felt that she was no different that the Taliban telling women to cover their heads, stay indoors, don't drive cars, don't go to the doctor because it's "impure".
We are living in a scary time.
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