Republican patriotism

Daniel from Rockford wrote me to suggest a topic for this blog. I couldn't think of anything to add to what he wrote, so I will just let him speak:

Is there much that is less patriotic than to publicly avow secession from the Union? Well, now we have a pattern of secession talk from the center of the Republican party. The party’s V.P. candidate spoke at a meeting in her own home town that was advocating Alaska secession. Now, the Governor of Texas, Rick Perry, is making secessionist comments and then refusing to disavow the idea when questioned about the implication of what he has said.

The Republican party has made patriotism their badge of honor for many years now. Sadly, their idea of patriotism usually turned out to be the shallow lapel pin type symbolic patriotism. They stretched the truth whenever they made any claim to patriotic action as opposed to their usual patriotic speech and flag waving. For example, during the Reagan, Bush years they claimed that indulging in hedonistic capitalism was a patriotic act or then denied that social activism was patriotic. They sneered at Obama’s social activist background.

This Land is Your Land

In celebration of Independence Day today I present the most patriotic song I know - "This Land is Your Land" by Woodie Guthrie:




I think if Woodie were here today he would be telling us that the message of this song is needed now more than ever. This land is your and my land but it has been stolen from us and we need to take it back. Unlike the people of Zimbabwe, China or Burma we do not need to risk beatings, prison or death to fight the bastards that have stolen our country. What we have to do is stop believing their lies, stop allowing them to frame the debate for us and stop being afraid of the things they want us to be afraid of -- things that pose relatively little danger to us -- like foreigners and the spector of terrorism.

We need to start recognizing who the true enemies of our freedom and liberties are:
* People who accuse others of not supporting our troops while they themselves are destroying our military by starving them of resources and sending them on multiple extended tours of unnessary, counter-productive invasions and occupations of countries which were no threat to us.
* People who ask us to give up our personal liberties and freedoms for more security which they then do not deliver.
* People who give tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans while pawning off the costs of unnecessary wars on future generations.
* People who tell us the answer to our energy problems are to allow drilling for oil in some of our few remaining pristine natural places, which would not result in any additional oil for more than 10 years and would at best only produce enough oil to meet our needs for 6 months while causing damage to the environment that would last for hundreds of years.
* People who convince our legislatures to remove the traditional limits on usury and predatory lending and then proceed to prey upon the most financially vulnerable among us, sadddling them with loans with interest rates that start off low but then rise above the borrower's level to pay and then these villians ask the legislatures to make it harder for their victims to declare bankruptcy.
* People who tell us that government is the problem rather than the solution and then, when they are in power, appoint incompetent idealogues to head government agencies so that government will resemble their description.

Patriotic words from Keith Olbermann

It is the 4th of July, American Independence Day. I guess I should post something patriotic. Here are some soul-stirring words from Keith Olbermann

We enveloped our President in 2001.And those who did not believe he should have been elected—indeed those who did not believe he had been elected—willingly lowered their voices and assented to the sacred oath of non-partisanship.

And George W. Bush took our assent, and re-configured it, and honed it, and shaped it to a razor-sharp point and stabbed this nation in the back with it.

Were there any remaining lingering doubt otherwise, or any remaining lingering hope, it ended yesterday when Mr. Bush commuted the prison sentence of one of his own staffers.

Did so even before the appeals process was complete; did so without as much as a courtesy consultation with the Department of Justice; did so despite what James Madison—at the Constitutional Convention—said about impeaching any president who pardoned or sheltered those who had committed crimes “advised by” that president; did so without the slightest concern that even the most detached of citizens must look at the chain of events and wonder: To what degree was Mr. Libby told: break the law however you wish—the President will keep you out of prison?

In that moment, Mr. Bush, you broke that fundamental com-pact between yourself and the majority of this nation’s citizens—the ones who did not cast votes for you. In that moment, Mr. Bush, you ceased to be the President of the United States. In that moment, Mr. Bush, you became merely the President of a rabid and irresponsible corner of the Republican Party. And this is too important a time, Sir, to have a commander-in-chief who puts party over nation.

*****

It is nearly July 4th, Mr. Bush, the commemoration of the moment we Americans decided that rather than live under a King who made up the laws, or erased them, or ignored them—or commuted the sentences of those rightly convicted under them—we would force our independence, and regain our sacred freedoms.

We of this time—and our leaders in Congress, of both parties—must now live up to those standards which echo through our history: Pressure, negotiate, impeach—get you, Mr. Bush, and Mr. Cheney, two men who are now perilous to our Democracy, away from its helm.

For you, Mr. Bush, and for Mr. Cheney, there is a lesser task. You need merely achieve a very low threshold indeed. Display just that iota of patriotism which Richard Nixon showed, on August 9th, 1974.

Resign.

And give us someone—anyone—about whom all of us might yet be able to quote John Wayne, and say, “I didn’t vote for him, but he’s my president, and I hope he does a good job.