America, love it or leave it

Remember Vietnam? It was a dirty little war that exposed fault lines in American society. Since the Civil Rights movement was going on at the same time, we tend to lump them together as the turmoil of the 1960s. But there are some aspects of the Vietnam anti-war movement that deserve special attention today.

On one hand, during Vietnam, we had the conservatives who thought and said, "My country, right or wrong," and "America, love it or leave it." They meant, shut up and go fight, even in a stupid war. No doubt, they were committed to America, but their idea of the meaning of America was the limited view of an obedient tribalist.

On the other hand, we had liberals (and, yes, radicals) committed to the idea that freedom and democracy could coexist even in a dangerous world. They thought that a bad idea was a bad idea, and the sooner that was exposed, the better. They thought democracy was at its very center concerned with settling in public and by the people what to do, what not to do, and what to stop doing. They knew the difference between the existential threat of the Nazis and the sphere of influence threat of the North Vietnamese communists. In John Kerry's best line (and possibly his only good line), "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

The truth is that we do need people who will go fight without looking for every possible rationalization why whatever conflict is current is a bad war. We also need people who will question every conflict.

Now that President Barack Obama has been reelected, the huge irony is that the same tribalists and their political heirs are beside themselves with the urge to secede. They've completely abandoned "my country, right or wrong," because what they really meant was, "my white, conservative tribe, right or wrong."

In real time, those of us who even contemplated a dovish path on Vietnam, they told to get the hell out. Now that an election didn't go their way, instead of taking their own medicine and, in the extreme, relocating - the way Mitt Rmoney's grandfather did when his sacred polygamy was threatened by secular authorities - they are wailing and gnashing their teeth, threatening to secede again from the Union.

So, even though I didn't sign this citizen-created White House petition, I applaud its in-your-face message to the disloyal secessionists:

You simply cannot be a patriot if you're ready for civil war when you don't get your way.

More patriotic than Newt

Newt Gingrich (R-cheating for the flag) did two wives wrong because of his overwhelming boner for America.  He was working hard and long cheek to cheek with other (younger) women, and he needed sex relief.  Right there in the Speaker's office.  If Bill Clinton could get some in the Oval Office...

John Ensign (R-much better looking than Harry Reid) had to go him one better and have an affair with a close friend's wife.  That personal sacrifice shows just how much Ensign loves America.  He was willing to wreck four lives at once and maybe get his own mother indicted for perjury for her involvement in paying hush money.

Top that, Gingrich!  Isn't it about time you found someone to cheat with on Callista?  She has to be expecting it.

What sweet young wingnut sycophant will be the next last refuge of a scoundrel?

Why we should have hanged Jeff Davis

Secession was treason and should have been treated as such.

One of America’s worst traitors, a man who had committed or condoned far worse acts against his country than Benedict Arnold, was allowed to go home after his brief detainment in Virginia. But even that lenient punishment was enough to elevate [Jefferson] Davis to Southern martyrdom. Rumors were spread throughout the South about his mistreatment at Fortress Monroe, although Davis himself said the stories were untrue. Until his death in 1889, he found a stronger voice in passionately defending the right of secession and extolling the nobility of the Lost Cause. He became, like so many of his fellow Confederates, an unreconstructed rebel. As one might expect, he never believed that he had committed a single traitorous act; in fact, he boldly, even arrogantly, affirmed that every one of his actions was legal and constitutional. Unlike Lee, he never sought a pardon, which is just as well because he probably would not have gotten it (although President Johnson, who was courting the Democratic Party at the time, could have easily caved in on this issue). But he also never uttered a single word of regret or remorse for the bloody revolutionary war he had willfully led against his country.

It was and is unpatriotic to adhere to the Confederacy.

Scott Brown confesses

The lone remaining Republican running for Senate in Massachusetts apparently believes that the flag is as important as American history, the Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence.

He admits, "I'm a lightweight. I have no ideas to actually make America better. All I care about is window-dressing."

The flag is a symbol, a symbol of all the ideals that Massachusetts educators already teach.

Maybe, if Brown's bullshit proposal passes, we can teach our elementary students that making a fetish of the flag is not the American ideal. Maybe we can teach them to care for the flag better than all the flag-wavers whose flags grow tattered and dirty from neglect.

Or would that be too political?

Resting now from struggle

Far be it from me to speak ill of the war dead on their day of special remembrance or any other day, but it is still right for us to recall that what they did was not to act as superheroes but rather, as ordinary people, to rouse themselves to give something extraordinary. To my mind, that makes them all the more honorable.

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Scoundrels

Used to be that patriotism had monopolized the last refuge of a scoundrel. The false bravado of Duhbya and Darth shows there are still plenty of scoundrels who call themselves patriots.

But there's a new competitor - well, not that new - Christianity. When I was a kid, it was mainly the preachers' kids who were scoundrels. Or maybe I was just naive then and didn't notice all the greedy businessmen wrapping their sin up in scripture and calling it piety, when it's really just marketing.

By now, though, there's a whole parallel economy run by people who have forgotten that Jesus's founding ministry was among the very poor and downtrodden. He wasn't trying to get scrolls on long haul trucks or to put his stamp on government. He was trying to help people in need.

Originally a comment on TennViews.