It’s a different kind of patriotism, you see
We’re not questioning the quantity, you understand, just the quality:
Almost all Americans consider themselves to be very patriotic, according to the Pew Research Center in Washington. But Pew has also found that Democrats and Republicans have discernibly different tendencies in the tenor of the patriotism.
Republicans tend to be far more likely than Democrats to believe “we all should be willing to fight for our country … right or wrong,” and to support the use of pre-emptive military force. They are less likely to care what the rest of the world thinks of us. (According to a recent Pew survey of citizens in 24 countries, the rest of the world prefers Obama to McCain.)
Over time, as Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer write in their book “The True Patriot,” those different tendencies have hardened into a caricature that “says the right loves America, and the left looks down on it. It says conservatives are proud to wave the flag and proclaim America to be the best, and liberals, embarrassed by the whole chest-thumping spectacle, complain about America’s errors.”
Hmm…you mean like these young patriots?
They can’t help it, either, so wishing they would act differently is hopeless.
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{Post by See-Dubya}
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Ingrates.
So what? Almost all adults consider themselves to be good drivers, too. Yet somehow, there are still plenty of idiots blithely cutting us off on the expressway while talking on their cellphones.
Like driving skills, patriotism isn’t magically created by just claiming you have it. Your actions have to show it.
Yup, I’d say that’s assassination chic on steroids. Personally I don’t feel like a patriot because if I had the power these idiots would’ve been arrested. Call me Stalin if you must.
Don’t get riled up at the empty heads filled with mush. It is their “progressive” instructors/professors who convince these airheads that the US is bad, the military is bad, and conservatives and conservative ideas are very bad.
Saying that, they should be reeducated.
In my experience liberals cannot differentiate between their government and their country.
People aren’t grateful for things they do not earn.
This is why I am not emperor of the world. In my world, people that are stupid would be tolorated as long as they didn’t ACT stupid… then they would be, uhhhhh, gone.
Although, I know that a lot of this foolishness it is taught to children by their liberal teachers. In the school near us, the teachers regularly show Michael Moore movies to their students to teach about America.
Patriotism is relative to the degree to which we internalize the Constitution of the United States and the traditional values, morals and religious foundations it represents and prescribes. Those who want a nation void of religion, that practices hedonism, amorality and valueless relativism, may be patriots in some society but it’s not the one we established after our Revolutionary War.
Democrats think hugging the enemy will make them peacefull.
Republicans want to embrace the enemy, but in a different kind of way – with a MOAB.
They can have him!!
Freedom is NOT free. Unfortunately, the price is blood. If you’re not willing to pay that price, why should you enjoy freedom? Our fathers and grandfathers were willing to pay that price, and thus, in the words of the Constitution,
I’m willing to bet that less than one percent of the leftists and moonbats have ever volunteered to support their country by enlisting in the Military.
And the vast majority of them are willfully ignorant of history.
TANSTAAFL
Perfect example of why they should not have ever stopped the draft …
When these folks had to spend at least 2 years in the military they learned the true meaning of patriotism and what it took to have it …
That is no longer true …
They are indoctrinated from their first day of school into the left’s ideology of hate, dhimmitude and socialism …
By the time they are supposed to be the adults in the room they have no idea what an adult is … let alone what an adult is supposed to do when it comes to patriotically protecting this country …
Exactly! Just like lying is a different form of honesty.
My moonbat brother, who used to like to quote stories from the Kansas City Indymedia site, actually works at a plant near KC that makes small caliber ammunition for the Army.
Every now and then I ask him in his e-mail exchanges how he can live with himself working for the military industrial complex.
Typical lib, he dumped his wife and two girls (two weekends a month visitation now) for a better looking model. He is also convinced Diebold stole the election from Kerry in Ohio…
Liberal baby boomers are the problem. They tuned in, turned on, and dropped out. Then they sold out and made money like a capitalist, taking full advantage of our country. Now that they have made their money, these ideologues are back pushing their Stalinist agenda.
This has led to the brainwashing of every liberal generation that follows. I have friends that are now mid-30’s that are finally starting to realize the truth after decades of brainwashing.
#11
Stopping the draft ended most of the opposition to the war in Vietnam, from what I’ve read. The anti-war protestors weren’t opposed to the war as much as they were opposed to serving in it.
Having been born in 1964, my memory of the Viet Nam era is somewhat limited, however.
My 6th grade teacher predicted this in the early ’60s. This would be how American would be dismantled – not through direct assault. Take the minds and spirits of the children and everthing else would follow.
McCarthy was right, more right than he knew. The infiltrators did a thorough job of converting the school system and the basic institutions of society, courts and government included. And it only took 60 years.
Screwed ‘08……
Speaking of a different kind of patriotism, al-Kadie Couric mourns that Mugabe let the Marxist revlution down in Zimbabwe…
“Hope and Promise”. Hmmm, what other Marxist is running on a platform like that?
Link
The real problem is that the left version of patriotism (primarily bitching and moaning that social ills – real and imagined – are more important) is given a disproportionate amount of media coverage. They appear bigger and more influential than they really are and are seldom called to back their claims up with facts. Most I believe are professional protesters and get more attention while us working stiffs stray at work and support their welfare benefits.
Patriotism for me is “it’s all about us”. To a lefty “it’s all about me”.
Whoa, check this out from Drudge:
http://kfyi.com/pages/local_news.html?feed=118695&article=3875223
Home invasion and murder in Phoenix by Mex Army members. Working a second job I guess.
Someone should tell Katie that is the way it always works for these despots … guess if she had gotten a real education instead of a liberal indoctrination she might have known that … duh!!!
Castro in the 50s … Chavez now … same script …
And that is why I say I don’t doubt their support of the troops, I only question whose troops they support.
RedDog …
Welcome to what we deal with on the ground in Arizona more regularly than anywhere else because of the illegal invasion … this was just the tip of one of the many icebergs in this war …
BTW … J.D. Hayworth’s radio program is streamed online at KFYI.com Monday-Friday from 4-7 PM Arizona Time … Don’t believe it is syndicated nationally …
Land of the free because of the brave… make no mistake about it.
Do you ever hear the Dems condeming or even mildly distancing themselves from this dispicable type of “patriotic” free speech?
NO.
But they knock themselves over getting to a mic to pi*s and moan about the dreaded talk radio… to endorse and advocate the “fairness” doctrine.
OT:
GWB has decided North Korea is serious about ending its nuclear ambitions.
I hope he is right, but Li’l Kim has a track record…
A different kind of patriotism…kinda like the French!
Patriotism to a Democrat?.
Democrats get all excited and “Patriotic” about everything labeled “Organic” – meaning that it was fertilized and was covered with excrement from conception – which is the most meaningful metaphor for everything about Democrats; from initial thought to action to outcome, it all originates and ends in excrement. It is their alpha and omega.
Democrats demonstrate their patriotism by all of the following: burning our flag; spitting on our soldiers; lying about their military records; slandering our troops and libeling them as murderers; calling our soldiers stupid; lying and distorting the Constitution; smearing the “Founding fathers” of our country; destroying successful businesses and then criticizing the company management for laying off employees or moving what is left of their company to a welcoming country; taxing hard working families and slandering them for having become successful; promoting people based on skin color, gender, sex, and sexual identity while mocking and reputing skill and quality of character as actual values and determiners of success and honesty. Blatant racism against all American minorities (i.e. actual real citizens) is their real forte – in particular the following: Asian, American Indian, Hispanic , and black Americans that succeeded by their own efforts and do not owe patronage to the Democrat party. Mocking Christ and Christians and openly libeling Christian groups as dangerous and a threat to destroy our country – except for the National Council of Churches/Scientology/Church of England that actually are a threat to our country or its values
But what do Democrats really love? Crooked unions that steal from their members and assault whistleblowers; felons – in particular pedophiles and child rapists; late term abortions; innocent citizens without the means to protect themselves facing armed criminals (while the Party Elite have armed guards and elaborate security); incompetent teachers crippling the education of “children at risk;” journalists/editors who reveal military secrets which place our soldiers lives at risk and diminish that security of our country; second rate medical systems run by Unionized nurses for the average American (elite clinics and hospitals run by physicians for the Party Elite); Islamic fundamentalists who would kill every American they could get their hands on and sexual mutilate all female children; (Note how Democrats love to see the children get wasted?); but most of all, Democrats love anyone who will give them money and power – the power not to make the world a better place for all, but rather the power to smash your face and mine into the dirt with their boots and laugh.
The problem with that conclusion is that libs’ disdain for this country, it’s society, its economic system, its history and its people is not some “response” to what they see around them, but comes from within. Ask any of my moonbat sisters to name the three things they like most about America, and they’d be hard-pressed to name one.
Conversely, ask them to name anything wrong with National Socialism, other than the genocide/war part, and they’d probably draw a blank.
Observing others’ sense of patriotism doesn’t set libs anti-Americanism on fire; it merely pours gasoline on an existing flame.
I grew up on a SAC base. I don’t care what the world thinks of us as long as we have bigger bombs!
“My country, may she always be right. But my country, right or wrong.”
It doesn’t get any more clear than that.
As a current member of the all-volunteer military, I can honestly say that we don’t want a draft. You have to want to serve your country. Forcing these idiots to serve would only undermine the morale of those of us that want to be here.
They would be insolent, talk back, question orders (even ones that involve their own safety), and generally be a pain in the A$$. Even judicial and non-judicial punshment can go so far and it’s too much paperwork if you serve up some wall-to-wall counseling or a blanket party.
BTW, I am a full-time guardsman and those that would try to avoid the draft by joining the guard would have the same qualities. Of course, nowadays, with all the guard deployments you wouldn’t gain much by joining the guard.
The reason for all the Guard deployments is that Clinton cut the Army in half in the 1990s.
The Democrats so-called “patriotism” is arrogant and based in elitism, the “I know what’s best for you, better than you know what’s best for you”.
They’re so afraid of not being liked that they convince themselves that looking to other countries is the best way to measure how America should proceed. Ridiculous, and frightening besides.
I noticed, once again, that the people in the picture have their faces covered. If you cannot stand and support your opinion, and you have to hide yourself behind a mask, your opinion isn’t worth the photo paper you’re on. Be a man; stand up for yourselves, or go away and whimper in some dark corner somewhere.
I suppose these moonbats would get upset if we counter-protested with signs that said I support the troops when they shoot liberals.
As a related, but not quite on topic aside. .
Last night I noticed for the first time that Kentucky Fried Chicken restaraunts are simply COVERED in red, white, and blue. The one in Stockton, CA also had prominent pictures of families with KFC meals which featured US flags in the background.
Sorry to stray from topic.
Should always ask if you are fighting for your country; or for the ego of some president; or for Israel, egged on by the “neo-conservatives”; or for liberal causes like “making a difference” or “nation building” or whatnot having nothing to do with the defense of the U.S.
Like the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor? If you have no more rationale for pre-emptive force than iffy intelligence, like on imaginary WMD, then it is very difficult to distinguish pre-emption from good, old-fashioned aggression.
I disagree, liberals believe they are gods! who needs God, when you are wiser and more knowning than anything else in the universe.
Iffy? Just because it may have turned out the intelligence on WMD’s was not correct doesn’t make it iffy. It was almost universally agreed upon by the west’s intelligence agencies that Saddam had WMD’s. The Russians thought he had them. There are letters from Saddam to his generals and back indicating that even HE believed he had WMD’s. The intelligence was enough to get massive bi-partisan support for the use of force against Iraq in Congress. . .
I’d hardly call that “iffy”.
It is not patriotic to demean your country in the misguided pursuit of some worldly social norm. Patriotism is inherently focused on the success of the nation and the forgiveness of its failures as a human enterprise. From what I can tell the liberals, who are really international socialists in their perspective and action, cannot be patriotic in any sense of the word. The sad thing here is that many good and patriotic Democrats have been mislead by their own leaders and are unable to grasp the significance what is really anti-American behavior. (I suspect that far too many Democrats lead with their emotions and simply don’t see that the slogans and propaganda they are fed are really hateful and hurtful to the nation.)
Sometimes masks are called for. A woman here who runs a really tremendous restaurant lost my business for the better part of three years when she appeared on the front page of the local paper at an anti-war demonstration. While I definitely support her right to voice an opinion, my greenbacks won’t be used to underwrite it.
WARMAC: Very well said. Thanks.
I can’t believe that any of these people that feel this way can have jobs. When do they find time to protest? How do they pay for their meals? When are they going to pay back their school loans for their useless degree in gender studies?
I have a different take on it.
Their government is the agency that is supposed to take care of them from cradle to grave. The Country is The hard working and independent thinking people who strive to succeed and make something with their lives, thus, being the only ones who can pay for these socialist entitlement programs through the illegal redistribution of their wealth. (Wordy sentence of the day?)
I think perhaps the fact that we do take responsibility for our own actions causes them to despise us as a people and their inability to pay for most anything while we continue to pay for the vast majority of their programs just irritates them thus, a love for the government and a hate for their country.
And the Mexican army invading a home in the USA is not an invasion? Still think there is no need to secure our borders and these are mostly just hard working and honest people who happen to break the law?
Newsflash: No matter how hard working they may be (even those among these invaders who actually are) they are still committing an illegal act. If you want to change the law, get the laws changed. Do not trample the sovereignty of our nation and endanger our citizens so that you can feel better about yourself. If this proves to be true, we need more than just minutemen and fences on our border.
Sounds like many here are confusing patriotism with nationalism.
I’m all for introducing a stupid tax on society. Who’s interested?
Carlin said there are only two other kind of drivers;
“Get out the way you idiot.”
&
“Look at that manic go!”
Reminds me of a speaker who worked on Capitol Hill, who once asked her natural resources-based audience, “How many conservationists are in Congress? Answer: 535.”
We all know how that turned out.
The # of troops cut under Bill Clinton was slightly higher than the net increase in the number of federal workers that were hired under Clinton’s expansion of government.
Remember that when a lib tells you Bill Clinton shrunk the size of government.
Like it or not, patriotism is inherently nationalistic. Either you put your country first or you don’t. Liberals seem to think that putting the country first is somehow mean and cruel.
As I recall, there was no political indoctrination at all in my Science, Math, History, or Literature courses. Some professors in other subjects would make side comments, but I let it pass, because it was of no relevance to what I was studying, and didn’t detract from the work.
It’s really the Political Science department that’s guilty of biased opinion and propaganda. And there are plenty of other students who are actively involved with leftist and anti-american activities. But they’ve always been there. They march and make speeches, put on conferences for themselves, and are a quite visible minority.
Here’s an example from two years ago: A group of politically motivated students at Lehigh University, called “The Movement” were upset about something. They gathered somewhere, and nothing happened. So they decided to take their list of demands over to the office of the University President, and nail them to the door (like Martin Luther during the Protestant Reformation) The university President came out, took the list, thanked them for their concern and desire to do well, and went back inside. Nothing else happened. End of story.
Hey – they’re entitled to their opinions, and it’s like, part of some people’s college experience.
The problem is the amount of unnecessary attention that these people can get.
All we need to do is to react when the media tries to hand us information about publicity hogs like this. Get into the habit of turning off the radio, or switching the channel. Almost all of TV is metered – they’ll figure out fast enough what people don’t want to see.
Why is it so hard to imagine that Saddam simply MOVED his WMD’s???? The lines between countries exist on a map, drawn for the convenience of the reader…they are not barricades (of course, it would be nice if we actually had a barricade between us and Mexico, but that’s another thread…).
Examples?
And now, the rest of the story….
Democrats tend to be far more likely than Republicans to believe that “we should be willing to fight our country – right or wrong” and to support the use of post-apocalyptic military force.
To wit: Politicalguano’s rather accurate post (#27).
Is it your contention that they are mutually exclusive?
I contend that patriotism for liberals might begin with discarding the notion that their country is always wrong, particularly if led by a Republican. Maybe throw in the thought that we are not a terrorist country (a la Prof. Jennie Traschen of UMASS Amherst).
I remember seeing a TV news interview with an elementary teacher several years ago in which she said, “We don’t want it (the project they were working on) to be TOO patriotic…” All I could think was, “Huh? Why not?” I wonder how many other countries teach their children not to be too patriotic…
Only in the USA, Katy – only here. Isn’t that really the tragedy here?
John Kerry.
Even the French thought Saddam had WMD, and back during the Lewinsky impeachment hearings, Clinton, Kerry et al were all convinced Saddam was a threat. Or at least they claimed to believe it.
BTW, in a year long run up to war, based on the fact that Saddam set up a counter-insurgency before he fell, and that while the Syrian Arab Nationalist Socialists (ie, Ba’ath) didn’t like the Iraqi Ba’ath Party, they almost certainly saw the US as a bigger enemy, I am quite willing to consider the possibility that chemical weapons were moved to Syria.
The otherside asked for an example – how about the current energy situation where the liberal socialist for President indicated that he wanted gas prices to rise and spread the pain more slowly. Or how about Americans are bitter and cling to their guns and faith because they are bitter. How about the hatred for Bush as he tries to defend us against terrorism or, for that matter, the continuous attempts to undermine the troops in Berkeley and the Congress. How many more do you want to show that liberals consider America a mean and cruel people who are bent on doing evil in the world.
And finally, the continuous attempts to brand Evangelical Christians and Mormons as bad people.
that picture taken at a field trip of lgm’s class?
The intelligence on Saddam and WMDs was not iffy. Every major nation in the world knew that this guy had WMDs and had used them in the past. President’s both Republican and Democrat knew the situation. Only the wacko “Bush Lied” folks don’t understand that the enemy is not going to cooperate with you when you seek to determine his plans and capabilities.
The national intelligence estimate (NIE) is always an estimate – and the quality of that estimate is based upon many sources and methods. Going to War in Iraq was a slam dunk from an intelligence perspective and, by the way, WMDs were found (not just the more modern versions of biological and chemical agents that were expected).
Finally, Saddam was seeking to develop a nuclear capability much like than now being developed in Iran. If you think that Israel isn’t going to act on intelligence that affects their survival, then I have a bridge in Brooklyn for sale cheap to you disbelievers. The Israeli’s are also watching the US election situation for clues as to when to strike. They know that Obama has an Arab-American heritage and they don’t trust him.
The left conveniently forgets that there were discoveries of WMD …
The fact that the items found turned out to be outdated and either leaking or no longer usable as an efficient weapon does not change the fact of what they were and what they were intended to be used for …
Ask the Kurds and other Iraqis whether or not Saddam had WMD …
Where do people think all those mass graves came from anyway? …
I have no doubt that he used the months leading up to the fully telegraphed invasion to move anything things to Syria …
here’s one
unless you’re preparing to expand and explain the alleged confusion?
An acquaintance of mine has a bumper sticker that says, “Peace is Patriotic.” This is true, but so isn’t war? The left’s patriotism is conditional on their evaluation of how the Republic behaves. If they disapprove, it is OK to protest in a way that, given modern information technology, can be used to give aid and comfort to the enemy.
Saw a young lady at the grocery store last night with a “Peace is the Answer” shirt. Its not my place to say anything (but imagine what might be said to me if I wore a “W” t-shirt to a Dixie Chicks concert), but if I wanted to be a turd, I could have asked her if Peace had been the answer to Nazism, Fascism, genocide in Eastern Europe, slavery, etc.
Peace always works great when the school yard bully is stupid enough to take no for an answer.
BSR
Audio is now much better.
Thanks to DesertLover, publiuswarmac9999,Ed Mahmoud, and MtsEdge for addressing the ‘no WMDs’ lie that I cannot abide.
Thanks, guys–now I won’t have to unbunch my panties…well, not as much.
Its not that Obama is too black or not black enough, its that he’s too pretty.
The Patriotism Gap.
Lots of very good stuff there.
– BayStateRepublican
I’ve seen that one. . .and if BayState is California, I imagine you have more than one acquaintance with that bumper sticker
Of course, peace isn’t always patriotic. Even as far back as Rome, they understood the notion that “A bad peace is worse than war”. The peace that Europe enjoyed the last couple of years before WWII was an example of a decidedly UN-patriotic peace for most of Europe, reflecting an avoidance of dealing with crucial issues which would eventually result in the largest war in our world’s history.
Heh, I saw a reply once to a comment about a guy who had a sign that said “Violence is Never the Answer”. The comment was to the effect that, how many times would this person have allowed themself to be punched before exerting some sort of self-defense? Isn’t self-defense violent? If the police can’t take someone into custody in a non-violent manner, violence still isn’t the answer?
The desire for peace is indeed patriotic. I’d agree with that statement. But peace at the expense of our nation’s interests and security is not a good peace. I know I’m preaching to the choir here on that count.
wighttrasch, you’re welcome! Sorry if it got a bit O/T.
I would love a “war is patriotic” bumper sticker with the words “just ask a jew”.
Peach through superior firepower.
“Peach” = “Peace”
This summer cold is killing me…