Why am I the enemy in My Homeland? or American Values=Liberal Values

youngred

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Mon Jan-03-05 02:55 PM
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Why am I the enemy in My Homeland? or American Values=Liberal Values

Edited on Mon Jan-03-05 02:58 PM by youngred

I have always loved my nation. Since I was a small boy I was inspired by the noble goals laid out in this country’s founding documents. I proudly learned the Star Spangled Banner and the Pledge of Allegiance. So it is with some shock that I have come to learn recently that I am a foe of my country guilty of “treason,” “defeatism,” “anti-Americanism” and of not supporting the troops.

What happened to me? My views have not changed, though my awareness has expanded. I still believe that we can be a better nation. Pointing that out is not blaming America first. Noting that they don’t hate us for our freedoms, but rather for our actions is not blaming America first. Saying that the troops should get armor and come home from danger is supporting them more than slapping a magnet on my car and sitting comfortably by while they die. Being willing to give up more of my hard earned money to make sure that those who can’t find work can get through a pinch or that the poor get the healthcare they need is the charitable and Christian thing to do. Protecting our national currency, economic reputation, and environment so that my children and my children’s children have a safe and happy world in which to live is a patriotic thing to do. Being willing to listen to other nation’s concerns and problems and work with them is in the American character more than going it alone and making enemies.

It’s funny, but as student of history I’ve noticed a few things about patterns in this country. It has never been the conservatives that have made this country great, always the progressives and liberal. America is forward looking nation. The founding principles of this country: Democracy, Equality, Freedom are liberal ideas. It was not the conservatives who freed the slaves. It was liberal Christians who stood up and fought the “peculiar institution” and righted the corrupt bargain that left this a nation half-slave half-free. It was not the conservatives who went after the corporations, which abused millions in the Industrial Revolution. It was the muckraking media and unions. It was not the conservatives who worked to get women in the right to vote. It was women and liberal men who fought to overturn gender discrimination that stretched back to the founding of the western world. It was not trickle-down Conservatives that got the nation out of the Great Depression. It was a quasi-Socialist who increased government spending and provided a safety net for millions that allowed for a great boom in the American economy. It was not Conservatives who fought for civil rights for African Americans. It was African-Americans along with other traditionally disenfranchised groups (Catholics and Jews) that stood up and said this injustice cannot stand. It was not Conservatives who lead the war effort against the forces of fascism. It was liberals who believed in Democracy and protecting it from the right-wing reactionaries. Please note that through this I don’t use the labels Republican and Democrats. The party of Lincoln and Roosevelt long ago abandoned those noble roots in favor of being the party of the rich and discriminatory. The Party of Jefferson and Jackson spent a long time in the wilderness as the party of segregation and slavery. And while Liberal politicians have not always adhered to the most noble of goals (Jefferson’s racism, Jackson’s treatment of the Indians, TRs bullish nationalism, Kennedy’s womanizing) by in large they recognized that this country is only great when all are included and when we take of not just the poor but the minorities. We are an inclusive nation, the world’s great melting pot. America’s greatest strength has always been her willingness to accept the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free” and her recognition that “all men are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights.”

Americans have always had a strong sense of individualism, but in the era of rampant corporatism and materialism that strong character which spanned continents has turned into self-centeredness and greed. Americans have always been of noble heart and willing to help those in need, but in the year 2003 we spent as much on pornography as we did on foreign aid ($10 Billion). Americans have traditionally believed in being respected abroad and not meddling in the affairs of other nations, but unbeknownst to most we have been bombing, attacking and encouraging coups against Democracy around the world for decades. We don’t know about the abuses the government has perpetrated in our name, but the world does. For the most part they have refused to lay the blame on Americans as people, but have blamed our government. But that separation is becoming increasingly blurred as we support the irrational and anti-democratic actions the current administration has undertaken.

Everyone here wants the United States to succeed. I won’t stoop to calling those with a different ideology anti-patriots as they have done to me. But too often we have let our own comfort get in the way of what is best for our nation and what is in the traditional character of what it is to be American. I look across the spectrum of what it means to be an American and I see that liberal values are American values. Conservatism is a valuable and necessary counter-weight to extremes, but when it rolls back the rights of our fellow Americans, instills fear and hatred, and spends our national treasure on the enrichment of the few over the many it has gone too far and become Anti-American. Traditional families are valuable, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t recognize those who choose to live differently or have no choice in the matter of their difference. Protecting and educating our children is a valuable action, but not when we lie to them about their bodies and about the plain scientific facts of the world. Low government involvement in people’s personal lives is a standard of this nation, but giving up the right to read what we want to protect us from terrorists means that they have already won. Protecting the right to bear arms is not a bad thing, but doing so at the expense of millions of lives that could have been saved through simple non-intrusive measures is irrational.

Perhaps my view of this country was a silly childhood myth that I cling to despite all the evidence. But I refuse to believe that this country is about limiting the right to free speech, and the right to criticize actions you believe to be wrong. I refuse to recognize that we would seek to limit the rights of those who are different. I refuse to believe that we as a nation support attacking poor people around the world. I refuse to believe we are about the things that the last four years have brought about. Perhaps my vision of America is a foolish idealistic fantasy that I should give up. But I don’t think so. I think the people who seek to exclude me are the people who aren’t American. Patriotism really is the first refuge of the scoundrels, but it can be so much more when we live up to the values that this nation is all about. I am a patriot because I love my country and I spend my time and effort to educate myself on the issues and look to do what is best for my nation, because that invariably means that I will do better. I am a patriot and I am going to fight for my country against those who would kick me out. Will you, Republican and Democrat alike, join me in taking back OUR nation from those who are destroying the very things that have made us the greatest nation on earth?