thedrifter
05-13-05, 04:55 AM
In Defense Of Patriotism
May 12, 2005
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by Edward Daley
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The other day I heard a liberal assert that patriotism is really just xenophobia wearing a happy face, and that people who wave the flag and shout "God bless America" are nothing but ignorant fools, full of false pride and hatred for foreign cultures.
This attitude is typical of many left-wingers these days, and it's not too hard to understand how they could arrive at such a conclusion. They're extremely ignorant people, who are unable to appreciate the fact that many of their fellow citizens have a deep, unwavering love for their country, and the basic moral rightness for which it stands.
After all, it's difficult to appreciate the greatness of America unless one understands its history, and liberals are sorely lacking in that sort of education. Take, for instance, the liberal contention that the United States is no better than any other nation, because some Americans used to be slave owners, and our government once wiped out entire populations of American indians. Well, in the first place, slavery, while it was a truly obscene practice, only lasted in this country for a little over 80 years, which is far less than it lasted in virtually every other country on the planet. And whatever you may think about the issue, never forget that hundreds of thousands of Americans sacrificed their lives in order to put an end to it.
As far as killing off the indigenous people of this continent is concerned, it's not like they were all just sitting around minding their own business when we attacked them. Yeah, we went to war against the indians, and some of the things we did were vicious, ugly, and unjust, but let's not delude ourselves into thinking that they were all virtuous innocent bystanders. The indians did a whole lot of slaughtering themselves, not only of white people, but of other indians long before we ever showed up, so I think it's only appropriate that we try to maintain just a little bit of perspective on the matter.
There's also the leftist view that America is not the great nation that the patriots among us believe it to be, because equality has not been achieved among all its citizens. What they fail to understand is that there is no such thing as absolute equality among people. There never has been, nor will there ever be. It's a practical impossibility.
Simply possessing the same rights as everyone else does not, in any way, guarantee a person equality of outcome in any endeavor, nor can laws change the fact that some people are superior to others in all sorts of ways. Is there any question that some folks are smarter than most of us, more athletic, more artistic, more motivated, or more physically attractive to the general population? Of course not. Why then should we assume that everyone is capable of achieving the same level of economic success in their lives? Indeed, what makes liberals think that there aren't some people who are completely undeserving of success, due to their own lack of hard work?
The only equality anyone can ask for is equality under the law, and if some other country has a better system of justice than ours, I'd like to hear about it.
Left-wingers also whine endlessly about American imperialism, even though they clearly have no grasp of what that term implies. If the United States was an imperialist nation, the Cold War never would have happened, because we would have obliterated the Soviet Union in 1945, and then established American-style governments and economic systems in every country we felt like controlling. No nation on earth was in a position to challenge us once we developed nuclear weapons, but we didn't set about taking over the world, because modern Americans are not conquerors, we're liberators.
Still, few liberals are willing to make the sort of moral distinctions necessary to differentiate between countries like this one and the former Soviet Union. Most of the time they behave like moral relativists, who seem incapable of identifying evil when they see it. Of course, if the subject happens to turn to something like conservatism, their demeanors suddenly change. They have no problem treating right-wingers as if they were the spawn of Satan himself, but when it comes to someone like Joseph Stalin, why, he was just a poor, misunderstood schlub.
Oh, and let's not forget that America is also a horribly racist country, or so leftists would have us believe. Aside from being the descendants of slavers and genocidal maniacs, the white majority routinely seeks to disenfranchise black voters, prevent hispanics from entering the country, profile Arab-looking people at airports, and railroad virtually every non-white criminal suspect we can get our grubby little hands on. Of course, it doesn't seem to matter at all that a disproportionately high number of criminals in this country are non-white, that the vast majority of terrorists are Arab-looking, that millions of hispanics have entered the U.S. illegally, or that there's been practically no evidence of black voter disenfranchisement anywhere in the country in recent times.
For the most part, liberals who cry racism at every turn are racists themselves, choosing to exploit the issue of skin color whenever they feel it will afford them some sort of political or social advantage. In fact, they are even more dangerous, potentially, than neo-Nazis or the KKK, because they don't admit they're racists. At least you know a skinhead when you see one.
These left-wing bigots are the same people who delight in telling everyone how awful this country is, and how ashamed we should be for all the horrors we've inflicted on the innocent people of the world throughout our history. And while they may not make up the majority of liberals in this country, they are almost never challenged by other leftists for being utterly despicable cretins.
No, their left-leaning confederates are too busy referring to patriotism as the foolish antics of a bunch of redneck simpletons, who think everyone else in the world sucks. Well, patriotism is NOT foolishness, nor is it an expression of unwarranted pride. Patriotism in this country is born of the understanding that we are among the most honorable and decent people on earth, in spite of our flaws, and it's kept alive by an overwhelming desire to make sure that our children are left with at least as much freedom and prosperity as we enjoy.
American patriots appreciate just how lucky they are to live in this country. They understand how many people sacrificed everything to get us to this point, and how many more sacrifices will have to be made to keep us here. True patriots don't go around telling people from other countries how superior Americans are to them. They don't hate anybody who hasn't exhibited a hatred for America first, and they're perfectly willing to let other countries be, just as long as they don't threaten America's interests.
Patriotic Americans also understand that you can't build up your country if you spend all your time trying to tear it down, and I've yet to meet a liberal who hasn't attempted to wreck some aspect of American culture at some point in their lives.
While it is the right, and even the duty, of all Americans to question their government from time to time, ridiculing the American culture, and demeaning the remarkable efforts of our ancestors simply because some of them did horrible things, is as contemptible as it is narrow-minded.
Liberals love to preach to the rest of us about tolerance and understanding, but when put to the one test that matters the most, they reveal themselves to be as intolerant as any group of people can be. They act as if there's something wrong with Americans choosing to embrace all that is good and right about our country, instead of habitually focusing on its faults, and I for one resent their attitude.
America may not be the best it can be, but it's a whole hell of a lot better than the socialist utopia envisioned by people on the left these days. Given the choice between associating with some whiny, blame-America-first liberal, or a proud, flag-wavin' redneck, all I've got to say is toss me one o' them there brews, Bubba, and fire up the barbecue!
In the words of the late John Wayne, "Sure I wave the American flag. Do you know a better flag to wave? Sure I love my country with all her faults. I'm not ashamed of that, never have been, never will be."
Edward Daley
Ellie
May 12, 2005
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
by Edward Daley
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The other day I heard a liberal assert that patriotism is really just xenophobia wearing a happy face, and that people who wave the flag and shout "God bless America" are nothing but ignorant fools, full of false pride and hatred for foreign cultures.
This attitude is typical of many left-wingers these days, and it's not too hard to understand how they could arrive at such a conclusion. They're extremely ignorant people, who are unable to appreciate the fact that many of their fellow citizens have a deep, unwavering love for their country, and the basic moral rightness for which it stands.
After all, it's difficult to appreciate the greatness of America unless one understands its history, and liberals are sorely lacking in that sort of education. Take, for instance, the liberal contention that the United States is no better than any other nation, because some Americans used to be slave owners, and our government once wiped out entire populations of American indians. Well, in the first place, slavery, while it was a truly obscene practice, only lasted in this country for a little over 80 years, which is far less than it lasted in virtually every other country on the planet. And whatever you may think about the issue, never forget that hundreds of thousands of Americans sacrificed their lives in order to put an end to it.
As far as killing off the indigenous people of this continent is concerned, it's not like they were all just sitting around minding their own business when we attacked them. Yeah, we went to war against the indians, and some of the things we did were vicious, ugly, and unjust, but let's not delude ourselves into thinking that they were all virtuous innocent bystanders. The indians did a whole lot of slaughtering themselves, not only of white people, but of other indians long before we ever showed up, so I think it's only appropriate that we try to maintain just a little bit of perspective on the matter.
There's also the leftist view that America is not the great nation that the patriots among us believe it to be, because equality has not been achieved among all its citizens. What they fail to understand is that there is no such thing as absolute equality among people. There never has been, nor will there ever be. It's a practical impossibility.
Simply possessing the same rights as everyone else does not, in any way, guarantee a person equality of outcome in any endeavor, nor can laws change the fact that some people are superior to others in all sorts of ways. Is there any question that some folks are smarter than most of us, more athletic, more artistic, more motivated, or more physically attractive to the general population? Of course not. Why then should we assume that everyone is capable of achieving the same level of economic success in their lives? Indeed, what makes liberals think that there aren't some people who are completely undeserving of success, due to their own lack of hard work?
The only equality anyone can ask for is equality under the law, and if some other country has a better system of justice than ours, I'd like to hear about it.
Left-wingers also whine endlessly about American imperialism, even though they clearly have no grasp of what that term implies. If the United States was an imperialist nation, the Cold War never would have happened, because we would have obliterated the Soviet Union in 1945, and then established American-style governments and economic systems in every country we felt like controlling. No nation on earth was in a position to challenge us once we developed nuclear weapons, but we didn't set about taking over the world, because modern Americans are not conquerors, we're liberators.
Still, few liberals are willing to make the sort of moral distinctions necessary to differentiate between countries like this one and the former Soviet Union. Most of the time they behave like moral relativists, who seem incapable of identifying evil when they see it. Of course, if the subject happens to turn to something like conservatism, their demeanors suddenly change. They have no problem treating right-wingers as if they were the spawn of Satan himself, but when it comes to someone like Joseph Stalin, why, he was just a poor, misunderstood schlub.
Oh, and let's not forget that America is also a horribly racist country, or so leftists would have us believe. Aside from being the descendants of slavers and genocidal maniacs, the white majority routinely seeks to disenfranchise black voters, prevent hispanics from entering the country, profile Arab-looking people at airports, and railroad virtually every non-white criminal suspect we can get our grubby little hands on. Of course, it doesn't seem to matter at all that a disproportionately high number of criminals in this country are non-white, that the vast majority of terrorists are Arab-looking, that millions of hispanics have entered the U.S. illegally, or that there's been practically no evidence of black voter disenfranchisement anywhere in the country in recent times.
For the most part, liberals who cry racism at every turn are racists themselves, choosing to exploit the issue of skin color whenever they feel it will afford them some sort of political or social advantage. In fact, they are even more dangerous, potentially, than neo-Nazis or the KKK, because they don't admit they're racists. At least you know a skinhead when you see one.
These left-wing bigots are the same people who delight in telling everyone how awful this country is, and how ashamed we should be for all the horrors we've inflicted on the innocent people of the world throughout our history. And while they may not make up the majority of liberals in this country, they are almost never challenged by other leftists for being utterly despicable cretins.
No, their left-leaning confederates are too busy referring to patriotism as the foolish antics of a bunch of redneck simpletons, who think everyone else in the world sucks. Well, patriotism is NOT foolishness, nor is it an expression of unwarranted pride. Patriotism in this country is born of the understanding that we are among the most honorable and decent people on earth, in spite of our flaws, and it's kept alive by an overwhelming desire to make sure that our children are left with at least as much freedom and prosperity as we enjoy.
American patriots appreciate just how lucky they are to live in this country. They understand how many people sacrificed everything to get us to this point, and how many more sacrifices will have to be made to keep us here. True patriots don't go around telling people from other countries how superior Americans are to them. They don't hate anybody who hasn't exhibited a hatred for America first, and they're perfectly willing to let other countries be, just as long as they don't threaten America's interests.
Patriotic Americans also understand that you can't build up your country if you spend all your time trying to tear it down, and I've yet to meet a liberal who hasn't attempted to wreck some aspect of American culture at some point in their lives.
While it is the right, and even the duty, of all Americans to question their government from time to time, ridiculing the American culture, and demeaning the remarkable efforts of our ancestors simply because some of them did horrible things, is as contemptible as it is narrow-minded.
Liberals love to preach to the rest of us about tolerance and understanding, but when put to the one test that matters the most, they reveal themselves to be as intolerant as any group of people can be. They act as if there's something wrong with Americans choosing to embrace all that is good and right about our country, instead of habitually focusing on its faults, and I for one resent their attitude.
America may not be the best it can be, but it's a whole hell of a lot better than the socialist utopia envisioned by people on the left these days. Given the choice between associating with some whiny, blame-America-first liberal, or a proud, flag-wavin' redneck, all I've got to say is toss me one o' them there brews, Bubba, and fire up the barbecue!
In the words of the late John Wayne, "Sure I wave the American flag. Do you know a better flag to wave? Sure I love my country with all her faults. I'm not ashamed of that, never have been, never will be."
Edward Daley
Ellie