Patriotism Under Siege

Front Page Magazine ^ | July 4, 2023 | Bruce Thornton

[E. Pluribus Unum]

But we still have much to celebrate this Fourth of July.

This year’s Fourth of July arrives at a time of doubt and even disdain for our nation’s birth and foundational principles. For most of our history this day has celebrated the bold, epochal Declaration of Independence that staked a claim to self-government and freedom from the world’s most powerful empire. The nation that followed after eight years of war went on to become, and still is, the freest, most prosperous, and, for all its all-too-human betrayals of those principles, the most generous great power in all of history.

The heart of our affection does not come from blood and soil, but from truly revolutionary ideals expressed in the Declaration’s preamble: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” The new nation was created to “secure these rights,” not to bestow or create them, and it “derives [its] just powers from the consent of the governed.”­­

Such obvious truths, however, have been for decades contested by some of our country’s most privileged beneficiaries, and the patriotism that expresses our country’s goodness disparaged and mocked. In its place a fashionable oikophobia­­––the hatred of one’s country, principles, virtues, history, and the fellow citizens who still believe in our civic ideals and their goodness––preens morally and embraces the impossible utopias that such oikophobes promote.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people”. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

– John Adams

[poinq]

I am patriotic to our history and country. But not at all to our current government or military. I don’t trust them at all. I am not even going to believe the crap, well the rank and file are great, its just one or two bad apples in Washington. That is no longer true. Command and control are not people I trust. And that goes very far down the ranks. As they have been promoting woke people for ten years now.

[b4me]

well if it’s any sign, I moved a few years ago to a dem controlled state for family reasons.

This year I see more US Flags and bunting and displays then I recall when I was growing up here.

I am praying other folks in dems states are getting more active and finding ways to fight back like we here are doing.

God can do anything with a few willing people.

[fishtank]

Get rid of the government-school complex....

[Reverend Wright]

Exactly !

We heard about the “rank and file” of the FBI for years from the Collaborator Conservatives and CopeLords.

But it turns out that when the entire top leadership is corrupted, the people they hire and promote are also corrupt.

[Tupelo]

“I am patriotic to our history and country. But not at all to our current government or military. I don’t trust them at all. “

I feel the same way. For the first time in my 80+ years, I fear the government. I am old enough to remember the full force of the government being brought to bear on the American people. Branch Davidians comes to mind. J6 comes to mind. Ruby Ridge comes to mind. And others.

[Hiddigeigei]

"We heard about the “rank and file” of the FBI for years from the Collaborator Conservatives and CopeLords."
The FBI was corrupted by Hoover. While they were machine gunning small time sick-up robbers who made headlines like Bonnie (who published poetry about her exploits) and Clyde, while Hoover was being provided boy-toys by the Mafia (see the Rosenstiel ex-wife).

[Openurmind]

“I feel the same way. For the first time in my 80+ years, I fear the government. I am old enough to remember the full force of the government being brought to bear on the American people. Branch Davidians comes to mind. J6 comes to mind. Ruby Ridge comes to mind. And others.”

Ditto, and the clincher for me was the closing of Pennsylvania Ave after those events. It was a symbolic gesture that government had just gone so immoral they had to be afraid of the very people they work for. It was the point where government chose to rule over the people instead of the people ruling over government as the Constitution calls for.

I saw then that day and action was the end of a Constitutional Free Republic.

Thanks Slick Willy...

[fortes fortuna juvat]

Would anyone on this thread hazard a guess as to the percentage of adults in this country who are attempting to destroy it, bearing in mind that there are 258 million adults 18 and over who comprise about 78 percent of the total population of about 331 million people?

[workerbee]

[frank ballenger]

Good post for today. Look around and try to find some good people. Good luck.