Needed Time

….with soul so dead, he never to himself has said, ‘This is my own, my native land!’

Yes. Many men, women and children now disdain patriotism. This is the triumphant conclusion of the 30 year war against American culture, the victory march of socialist radicals through the institutions. A few such people, primarily those who seek power or are protecting their acquired power from criticism, like to claim they are patriotic, just not impressed with patriotic symbols and conventional expressions.

Here’s a question: if flags are meaningless, why get so bent by an archaic relic like the Confederate Flag?
If flags are so meaningless, then why have Che Guevarra plastered all over a Cuban Flag as a symbol of the Great Socialist Revolution Against Capitalist Oppression? If flags are meaningless, why bother burning your country’s flag at all, it’s not anything one way or the other, is it?

Below is an excerpt from a book review. The reviewer, and the author under examination, are both men of the left who detest patriotism but profess to love America. I think it may hold the Rosetta Stone to understanding our adversaries in the struggle for the future. That Rosetta Stone is the attitude that if my country’s elected leaders enact policies with which I disagree, I cannot love my country. If my country does not meet my vision of a just society, then I cannot be patriotic.

From my end of the spectrum, which I hope is still mainstream, I love America regardless of flaws, regardless of which political faction holds power. My loyalty to America does not end when Democrats hold power, or when Republicans hold power but make serious mistakes. My love for America is even stronger when our fellow citizens, who serve in the armed forces, are deployed into harm’s way to carry out the will of the duly elected civilian President who holds the title, “Commander in Chief” as part of the office of the Presidency. What is beloved is the whole heritage of Constitutional law, the treasury of noble and hard-won victories over tyranny, the realization of opportunity for individuals, free and dignified with ultimate authority over how we are governed.

So, anyway, God Bless America. Michael Moore has a problem with that sentiment, it enrages him. Good. Let’s say it often just to watch them puke.

Loyal opposition (Book review) Commonweal March 24, 2006, Alan Wolfe

Of: The Intellectuals and the Flag, Todd Gitlin (Columbia School of Journalism)

“Then the oddest thing happened. As we grew older and left behind some of the passions of the sixties, increasingly we came to appreciate an America that stood for liberty and could even, at times, promote equality. It is not that we were wild about such centrist Democratic presidents as Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, but we knew that they were about the best we could hope for in a country that had also elected Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. An America capable of choosing the sincere Carter or the brilliantly frustrating Clinton was a society in which one could at least feel a strong sense of belonging.
What a surprise, then, to witness the return of extremist politics–only this time in the form of the New Right. Sometimes, indeed, it is literally those to the left of us in the 1960s who have moved to the right of us today. Gitlin and I had belonged to a leftist-oriented study group in Berkeley a couple of decades ago, and one of the other members was David Horowitz (Left Illusions), who would go on to become a fire-breathing conservative zealot. Horowitz perfectly captures the spirit that dominates so much of the Republican Party these days: a Leninist-inspired conviction that the end justifies the means, a willingness to accuse those with whom one disagrees of hating America, a contempt for moderation and compromise, and a zeal to divide the world into good and evil, with good, needless to say, always on your own side.
It did not have to be that way. The Intellectuals and the Flag is structured around Gitlin’s experiences after September 11: living not far from the World Trade Center, Gitlin and his wife displayed a flag outside their apartment and this show of patriotism in turn made it into the New York Times when a reporter discovered it. Somewhat new to public expressions of patriotism, Gitlin reflects on its meaning and significance. Patriotism, he writes, is “unnerving” because it asks you to commit yourself to loyalties larger than yourself. If you believe in universal values such as social justice, moreover, you will experience a conflict between patriotism and justice when your country acts in an arrogant and imperial way. The best part of Gitlin’s book, which consists of many of the essays he has written in recent years, are his reflections on patriotism, especially his persuasive argument that love of one’s country ought to be accompanied by an egalitarian love of one’s countrymen. Neither Gitlin nor I can ever forget how we reacted instinctively to September 11, certain that our country, and thus our innocent countrymen, was attacked in the most brutal way by a real enemy against whom war had to be waged. We loved our country, and we loved being in love with our country.
George W. Bush is a difficult man to love. Gitlin is not sure whether Bush’s failed policies in Iraq and the polarization upon which he relies are due to deliberate lying or simple incompetence, but Gitlin has few doubts about the consequences. “I felt again,” he writes, “the old anger and shame at being attached to a nation–my nation–ruled by runaway bullies, indifferent to principle, playing fast and loose with the truth, their lives manifesting supreme loyalty to private (though government-slathered) interests yet quick to lecture dissenters about the merits of patriotism.” ”