I went out to dinner with my wife (Laurie) Friday night to one of our favorite dives. They offer good Mexican food, excellent margaritas, with good service at a reasonable price (I think we paid about $50 and we had a drink (each) and an appetizer).
While we were waiting for the food my wife commented that during her recent visit to Branson, MO, she noted that at every show they honored veterans, asking members of each branch of the service to stand while they played either the national anthem or the service branch's hymn, and to do so in order that the rest of the audience could applaud them and their sacrifice.
She said that it was clear the people involved in honoring the service members were doing so sincerely, and more, that the audience members were truly and purely trying to express gratitude for the price they know many service members pay, whether it is in having to endure combat, injury, stress, less income, harder and long hours or simply the daily anguish of missing the childhood of their children. In that, there is nothing fake or insincere. There is nothing to be mocked, it is a good and decent expression of sympathy and gratitude.
My wife also noted that some liberals in the audience were derisive of the practice, mocking those who would "succumb" to such simplistic notions of "patriotism." They felt that it was fake, pandering, and easy. Whether the latter two were true, the first wasn't, and it was they, those liberals, not those who applauded or played the music, who needed to "check" themselves. They were demeaning to those who did not deserve it, they mocked something they clearly do not understand. There is a famous saying, "Never criticize Country to a poor man, it is all he has." It is as true today as when uttered, each of us has a sense of pride, a simple sense of fidelity and even happiness we feel at being part of the larger whole when our nation does something good (like winning the hockey gold medal in 1980), and a certain sense of defensiveness when others needless or (seemingly) unfairly criticize it. Expressing that genuine fidelity is decent and any of us who believe we are "sophisticated" ought to be also bright enough to recognize the simple goodness of saying "thank you."
With that said, the facts are that while we have applauded our veterans, all too often we have ignored them as well. We talk about honoring them, about supporting them, but when they complain about having too little armor, or they come home with post traumatic stress disorder, a number of "us" mock them for their audacity at asking for better equipment. We vote against paying for their long term care, we vote against paying the taxes necessary to fund the Veterans Administration.
By we, I mean conservatives. I know of virtually NO liberals who oppose paying for this care, I know of virtually NO liberals who argued AGAINST providing our troops with proper equipment.
Patriotism is a word which simply means acts or expressions of love of country. To love your country means you ask whether you are supporting making your country the place you SEE it as, WANT it to be, not just waving a flag. Applauding troop's service is fair and good, but I can tell you, the troops would far rather have you actually pay for their care, would FAR rather you take care where you send them, not ask them to go places to be policemen (and women), not to go places where they are seen as occupiers, to use their service and lives and time to prosecute violence upon our enemies, not just on those who don't want us in their country.
Some time ago, perhaps it was part of Vietnam, but at some point,, conservatives started telling a lie. That lie was that they care more about troops, have more love of country. Yet, they send troops places they should not go, they failed to listen to the generals on the ground for five years in Iraq. They only paid attention once they lost an election in 2006. They failed to send adequate numbers of troops to Iraq and Afghanistan quite simply because they didn't want to take the political hit required honestly to ask the American public to pay the needed price for these wars. Instead we wound up paying far more as the wars lingered on and on. Instead we had no "exit strategy", instead rather than liberators, we became occupiers, and due to Conservative's desires to funnel money to private contractors like Blackwater, we also became hated - our cavalier attitude about the death of innocents made us reviled. Conservatives have time and again, expressed contempt for Muslims, ignorance of the differences between Shiites and Sunnis (a difference which has been the single most important problem we faced in Iraq), and have expressed extreme contempt for the plight of those same civilians. If they care for our country, if they are really patriotic, they should want our country to behave the best it can, not merely just better than the worst in the world (to which they often compare our conduct). More than that though, they should want us to be our best because we want to be exactly that, the best we can, something we can proudly point to and stand and applaud and say "We did that", much like we stood proudly and spoke of bringing down Hitler and Tojo. Finally, if only just for this, for the safety of our troops, for asking the least necessary, for requiring them to be gone from home and loved ones the least time necessary, they should want us to have behave best, to have the best equipment for the job, the numbers of troops we needed, for those troops they applauded, they need to recognize patriotism is more than taking 30 seconds to say "thanks." That's nice, but it's not enough. Conservatism is not patriotic if by being conservative it means you won't pay to take care of those who sacrificed for you. Conservatives have voted time and again against fully funding the Veterans Administration. They talk about cutting spending, but when President Obama moved to end our presence in Iraq, they said it was "precipitous" and dangerous, which is by itself nonsense, we've been there 10 years. What's worse though, is it expresses an attitude that they are willing to spend money on military hardware or private police forces, in short line the pockets of doners, but aren't serious about cutting a portion of discretionary spending we should cut and don't need. If they care about the troops, bring them home, pay for their rehabilitation, don't keep them somewhere just so you can spend more money needlessly. Cut THAT spending, rather than physical therapy for those with brain injuries.
Conservatism tried to abscond with the idea of being patriotic, and while liberals words may not convey the same "image" of love of neighbor or of country, I judge things by ACTS not words, and in that Conservatism and conservatives are wanting (at best) and damnable liars at worst.
Agreed. 100%.
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