A Liberal's View of Patriotism

The Provocateur ^ | 12/26/2008 | Mike Volpe

[fiscon1]

I am really glad that Joel Stein penned this piece about the differences between Conservatives and Liberals and their love of America. I am glad because not only is it one of the most ridiculous pieces I have ever written but it also unmasks how many Liberals feel not only about their country but about their ideological opponents. The other day, I had a debate with a liberal colleague about universal health care and he told me that I was stupid because I didn't realize that health care is a right and that our government must do everything to make sure that everyone has health insurance. In other words, I was stupid because I disagreed with their position

[DManA]

Question for patriotic Freepers. Could the US go so far down the socialist path that you would stop loving your country?

[BuckeyeTexan]

Yes. Blind faith to country is nationalism, not patriotism.

[EagleUSA]

Could the US go so far down the socialist path that you would stop loving your country?
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A lot of it already has. Start with your new administration, then work your way through the Congress -— just for openers. You will find all of the America-hating socialists you will ever want to see. As far as the rest of the nation is concerned, half of them do not even know their own history, how their government works, or who is even in our government and what the socialists therein are doing TO them.

[rmlew]

Liberals cannot be patriots. They have no sense of "patria", fatherland/motherland. For they we are not a distict people, but merely a malleable polity and if the we are obstinate, they can always change our demographics to suit their will.
When I say "liberal", I do not mean just the far left, or Democrats. I mean right-liberals like our current President.

[fiscon1]

I don’t worry about what path America takes temporarily. What America has proven time and again is that in the end it finds the right path. Slavery, women’s suffrage, Jim Crow are all wrongs that we have overcome. We can overcome far too much government intervention. One of the things that really makes America great is that it allows for many mechanisms to right wrongs.

[sybilll]

I just find it incomprehensible that liberals are PROUD about NOT be proud of their country.

[EagleUSA]

I don’t worry about what path America takes temporarily.
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While I understand what your meaning is, the radical America-hating socialists that will have a heavy grip on the core of America, can do MUCH DAMAGE in a short period. And I personally do NOT trust in the guts and caring of a big percetage of Americans to make sure that damage does not happen....we need to be very watchful and respond strongly to any attack on our freedoms, our founding documents and our care values and laws that keep us free. The Constitution must be protected at all costs.

[LiberConservative]

Could the US go so far down the socialist path that you would stop loving your country?

Yes. Just like I would stop loving a wife who decided to become a prostitute.

[wintertime]

But there are plenty of things I don't like about America: our foreign policy, our religious fundamentalism, our provincialism, our intellectual laziness, our acceptance of sweat suits in public.
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Oh?...I suppose it must be that religious fundamentalism that abolished slavery throughout the world, ended cannibalism, and human sacrifice, and gave women equal rights.

It must be that religious fundamentalism that believes in a rational God whose natural mysteries can be unlocked though the scientific method.

Is it that religious fundamentalism that built the foundations of the world's **greatest** universities and hospitals and preserved the writings of the Greeks and Romans and laid the foundations for Western Civilization.

Does he mean that religious fundamentalism that claims that **all** men ( rulers and the common folk) are equal before God and ( incidentally) in courts of law?

Is he referring to the religious fundamentalism that tamed the brutal war lords of Europe and brought them under the control of constitutional rule of law?

Amazing but those who hate Christian fundamentalism the most are the very people who hold up Christian morality as the ideal to be followed.

[Excuse_Me]

I don’t worry about what path America takes temporarily. What America has proven time and again is that in the end it finds the right path. Slavery, women’s suffrage, Jim Crow are all wrongs that we have overcome. We can overcome far too much government intervention. One of the things that really makes America great is that it allows for many mechanisms to right wrongs.

That's because the Constitution has protected us thus far, but with 32 of the needed 34 states having applied for a Constitutional Convention, if only two more apply, then this Congress gets to decide who are the delegates to the Constitutional Convention, and we will not recover from that!

[y6162]

“Question for patriotic Freepers. Could the US go so far down the socialist path that you would stop loving your country?”

No. We’ll have to fight for traditional America. I think it’s clear we’re heading for a second civil war. I think the right wing has a good chance of winning it.

[fiscon1]

Of course, there are those that have a distorted view of the world and they will do damage to the nation with enough power. My point is that this country has the mechanism to confront that which is evil, bad, and even that which is helplessly misinformed and demented. Whatever damage someone might do, we have the power to undo it. That’s why I don’t worry about the nation.

[DieHard the Hunter]

> Yes. Blind faith to country is nationalism, not patriotism.

I dunno. I always thought Stephen Decatur was a patriot, yet he said:

“Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations, may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong.”

[DieHard the Hunter]

> Question for patriotic Freepers. Could the USCanada, the UK, or New Zealand go so far down the socialist path that you would stop loving your country?

Sorry for the amendment, which was necessary to make the question pertinent to me. My answer would be an emphatic "no". What would happen instead is that it would steel my resolve to fix my country, as a matter of Patriotic duty.

I don't believe we are ever given license to give up on our country: if we find ourselves doing that the only honest thing to do would be to become a refugee.

[wac3rd]

Does that “right” apply to the 20 million mainly uninsured group of vistors from down South?

[Ranger Drew]

One of the things that really makes America great is that it allows for many mechanisms to right wrongs.

One of the incoming administration's and democrat-controlled congress' goals will be to systematically shut down those mechanisms of redress.

For this reason, I fear we may have come to the point of an "armed" uprising.

[mamelukesabre]

I think I’ve already posted that I’m very close to that point already. Several times I think I’ve posted this.

If people don’t start respecting the constitution, then as far as I’m concerned, they don’t deserve it. And the government can kiss my ass.

If it turns out that obama really isn’t qualified to be prez according to the constitution and people that had the power to do something about it knew about this or made an effort to NOT find out the truth, then this will push me over the edge. I will no longer consider myself a free american citizen living under rule of law by the people for the people. I will consider myself a peasant or slave or freedom fighter-in-waiting living under the radar of an illegal government that must some day be destroyed. The flag will become a symbol of my bondage and I will spit on it. I will no longer recognize legal authority of any law enforcement or law. I will only recognize it’s superior force over me.