Do you hate or love America?

[PartyPooper]

Right now, I'm torn.

I have good memories of what this country once was. But, it's turned into a fascist state. I hate that very much.

What about you?

[RagingInMiami]

1. Love it enough to go out on the streets and take it back

[shesemsmom]

2. I love my country

I hate the people running it

[noshenanigans]

5. I was thinking of moving to Canada

then I talked to my exboyfriend who lives in Thailand now (he used to live in California) and he was telling me how we "did everything wrong"

And in that moment, I got so angry. Angry that my country had been taken from me under my watch, Angry that I hadn't done enough, and Angry enough to do more.

So, please, someone tell me what I need to do to make things better, because I will.

[shesemsmom]

9. Organize

we can't fret over what is done, we can plan for 06 and 08. Don't let the bastards rest either, and question their every move. We can't be complacent. We must question their every move

[Seabiscuit]

47. You will know what to do - you have the *passion* . Bravo!

[Nevernose]

3. Love where it was, hate where it's going

I honestly thought we were headed, overall, in a postitive direction. For all of it's flaws and craziness, I really thought we had a chance.

And not to be too depressive, I STILL think we have a chance, but it'll take a lot more work.

[progressoid]

4. Heard some people in a store say that liberals hate America

Actually, they are partially right...I hate THEIR America.

[Nevernose]

22. If liberals hate America

Than why are we so concerned about it?

(just a little tidbit I picked up in the MoveOn book)

[progressoid]

32. Well, sure that makes sense to us but to these ditto-heads, making sense

is an oxymoron

[Nevernose]

34. Oxymoron? Sounds like a FRENCH word to me

Go back to Canada, ya commie pinko bastard!
:evilgrin:

[Seabiscuit]

48. "Oxymoron" as in Ock Si Moron? As in Doc Ock?

Aw, forget it.

[Taverner]

6. I love the Republic, hate the Empire

[babylonsister]

7. I love America. And I am not torn.

Fuck ups and foibles have been/are, but don't disregard how lucky you are living here. Your name represents you with this!

[PartyPooper]

10. What does my name have to do with this?

:shrug:

[babylonsister]

21. I don't honestly know, other than

to me, Party Pooper means someone who gives up. Things suck, but don't give up.

[PartyPooper]

26. Well...

to me party pooper means someone who doesn't like the status quo! Someone who doesn't like conformity!

:P

[babylonsister]

37. Allrightythen!

Very understood. Friends? :toast:

[PartyPooper]

39. Yep!

:hi:

[Seabiscuit]

49. To me "Party Pooper" is some who ruins a party.

Feel free to ruin the s*** out of the Repuke Party.

[AndyTiedye]

8. I Love My Country

but it has been .

[SaintAnne]

11. I love america, and I always will

I love the "ideal America" you know that idea of freedom and stuff, the things we dream about, I love it and believe in it. Nothing will ever change my mind.
But how can you tell when someone loves a nation anyway? You might tell them it, but they don't know it's true. You might express it, and they'll call you a liar. So how do we know who really loves america?
Do we even know what America actually is?

[Celeborn Skywalker]

12. I love the land,

the different cultures, and many other things about this country, but I hate the assholes who are running it into the ground and I hate the knuckedraggers who enable them to do it.

[gtp1976]

24. I do

I love this country. Or perhaps I love the idea this country was founded upon. I may disagree with some of the things our politicians believe, but in general I think this is a great country filled with good people.

I think people in general are good people. I think there are bad people, but I think they represent a small percentage of the entire population.

I think the average Joe/Jane American wants everyone to be happy. I don't think conservatives are bad people. I don't think liberals are bad people. I think we are all people. In all of the rhetoric and "fight for political power" that the media loves to talk about, what is lost is that we are all humans and we are all people.

It is so easy to look down your nose and say "those gays" or "those Christians" or "those Republicans" or "those Democrats" or "those liberals" or "those conservatives" and then go off.

In my opinion, "those people" are people, too. They have families, they have emotions, they have goals, they have dreams.

Perhaps I am naive, but I believe that all humans (not counting politicians) are more or less on the same team, we just have different opinions on what the best course of action is.

JMO.

[Spiffarino]

13. Love America, hate what's being done to her

I'll always love my country. I don't have to love its leaders. Theodore Roosevelt was correct...

"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole.

Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile.

To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."
-- TR, Kansas City Star, May 7, 1918

[Seabiscuit]

50. I LOVE that quote.

[McKenzie]

14. I love your country

I know that it has been temporarily usurped by a gang of scumbags but you'll eventually kick them out if history tells me anything.

America? Rock and roll, Hollywood before it started to suck, drive-in movies, the Rocky Mountains, Harley Davidson m/cycles, John Gierach (look on Google if you don't fish for trout), Woodstock, Francis Coppola, Mark Twain, Henry David Thoreau.

It's not America that we Europeans hate, it's the bunch of scummy bandits who have bastardised all the good things America has given to the world.

[Kitka]

15. I held out for a long time loving the people of America, but no more....

I could say I was still a proud American by considering "America" the people I believed were generally good. But the turnout in voters for Bush, fraud or not, made me realize I can't give most people the benefit of the doubt any longer.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

16. I can't say I'm too damned impressed with her at the moment

but I still love her. It's the treasonous bastards raping and pillaging her I take issue with.

[Downtown Hound]

17. Both

I love the ideal, but I sometimes hate the reality.

[Az]

18. Change

At one time nations were isolated islands of homogeny. People of similar backgrounds and beliefs. They were isolated by distance and customs. When these nations confronted one another conflict often arose.

Eventually there was enough interaction that some level of tolerance was established. But as cultures mixed the minority cultures were absorbed into the communities they were still oppressed.

America represented the idea that all cultures and people could live together in peace and harmony. This was an amazing evolution in society. It began the process of breaking down boarders. It brought new ideas into play with each other and created an environment for growth.

The next natural step in this progression should be the realization that boundaries and boarders are unnecissary. This planet is growing smaller and smaller. Cultures now interact freely. Tolerance is more common place. Basic concepts of human rights are become more accepted. The idea of one nation placing itself seperate from others is become more and more oppressive.

There is an aspect of human nature that sociologists are studying increasingly. It is the good samaritan aspect of our natures. We help people we don't even know. Most social species will come to the aid of their family and clan. But coming to the aid of others even of the same species is unheard of.

The human species in expanding their mental abilities also expanded the reach of their social circle. Possibly in conjunction with domesiticating other species or establishment of communications we evolved a extended application of helping others in order to help ourselves.

Because we became dependent on a thriving society and our societies interacted with other societies it became in our interest to come to the aid of others to establish trust with them. This is reflected in most world religions and philosophies as the notion of doing unto others as we would have them do unto us.

In the past unfamiliarity and fear interfered with our drive to aid our more distant fellow humans. But as we have grown to understand and interact with others this fear has dropped away. There is a good chance that you know someone somewhere on the opposite side of the world. The world is becoming one community. The idea of boarders and nationalities is simply becoming archaic.

[JanMichael]

19. I love my wife. I love my family. I love Humanity. I love being alive.

Artificial boundaries set up to control wealth, and people, have little sway on me.

I suppose you could call me, gasp, a Citizen of the World.

One who happens to live in the USA, one who is lucky enough to have had parents who made it to the "Middle Class", one who happens to be a male, a "White" one at that. So I was lucky enough to get to go to college and benefit from our system while understanding that it's off the backs of others.

Had I been born in France I'd likely feel the same way. Had I been born in Somalia to a poor family I may hate my nation of birth because of the intense poverty.

But I'd still be a Citizen of the World.

[Guaranteed]

20. There's no such thing as America anymore.

That's the problem with that question.

[countmyvote4real]

23. Both.

I love the ideal and the promise of Our Constitution. I hate the reality and ever diminishing returns on it. How bad is it when US citizens are seeking political asylum or looking for a decent wage elsewhere? And how bad is it when 20% of our states elect to include homosexual hate into their state constitutions? It’s bad. Oh, but wait. It gets worse. The U.S. now condones torture and any “confessions” under that duress as “evidence” in a trial.

America is no longer a dream. It’s a four-letter word. And so the rot begins.

I can’t afford to emigrate, so I will stay and hold my nose for as long as I can, hoping that it will get better before it gets any worse. How sad am I?

[Solly Mack]

25. Love her so much it hurts

What has happened to America cuts me to the bone. A raw aching wound in my soul.

I'm learning to step back though. Moving to Europe has helped along those lines. A weight was lifted when I landed in this country. Little by little I'm learning to laugh again...and I was forgetting how to laugh.

I'm not free of my obligation to America but I can breath easier. I can look back on the last several years without the stifling knowledge that I am still under the thumb of the day to day outrages that have become America.

Oh, I still cringe when reading the headlines...and I still get sick to my tummy about what's happening...but I can walk out my door and escape that....if just for the moment.

Maybe just being able to relax will allow me to garner a more productive perspective and enable me to come back home with a better frame of mind.

I was being sucked dry. I needed the break. I just wish everyone had the option.

[RevCheesehead]

27. Yes. n/t

[Dirk39]

28. I looooooove America....

more than Bush loves the freedom loving people of Iraq.
If I have a little time and nothing else to do, I will liberate it, kill a few hundredthousands of Americans, topple any Bush statue in front of cameras, I've hired before, use a little napalm here and a little napalm there...
O.k., I want to be evil tonite, I'm evil anyway, 'cause I'm german.

If Bush and his comrades or any other kind of "evil" "Americans" would erase the rest of the world (who cares anyway) and only two liberal Americans would be left alive in their homeland (besides Bush and Co.). They would start a discussion at DU about, who loves America more, or who just partially hates America, because he or she loves it even more.

As a german leftwinger, I've told other germans again and again and again that the american patriotism and racism isn't comparable to the european and esp. german kind of nationalism and "patriotism", 'cause the american patriotism is based on values, not on blood and race as the german patriotism - and to a lesser extent the european nationalism in general, historically (still) is.
But I've stopped to believe in what I'ved told other people.
My guessing is that America is just going through a similar experience the european liberals and lefties experienced long ago.

If patriotism is just completely irrational, if it is just a cheap replacement for values that might really and rational connect people, it's poison, it's nothing but fashist poison. And those, who are really interested in improving and changing the way things are, shouldn't compete with Bush, Berlusconi, Putin etc. in patriotism.
It's a no win game.

O.K. I admit everything. I might be an evil communist. Marx words, that the oppressed and losers of this world have not fatherland, no native country to defend is more true today in the era of globalisation than it ever was.
I'm 40 years old and I have never ever, not a single time sang any kind of national anthem, I've never possesed any kind of flag and I never ever, not one single time, felt the obligation to express that I "love" any country at all. Since this very day, I have loved some women, but I cannot remember that I have ever "loved" a country.

I simply don't know how to do this. Ask Bush for some expertise, I never will.

I don't even hate any country at all, it's not worth it.


Hello from Germany,
Dirk

[lgardengate]

29. Love America always and forever....

"This is My country,land that i love..."

Don't remember the name of that song but i hear it every July 4th.
Sometimes i want to take our law makers and bash there heads together, ot Kick the Supreams (the court,not the musical group! Ha!)
to the curb but i still love America.We still live in the best country on earth (imo) at least, so far.

[fishnfla]

30. Love America. hate most Americans

we need to purge the assholes out

[GoddessOfGuinness]

31. I love my country

But some of the countrymen (and women) are seriously deranged.

[Dirk39]

33. So you love something

that doesn't exist, that is just a mixture of irrational feelings and emotions and you hate real existing human beings?

I guess this is just what patriotism is all about...

Lost in Germany,
Dirk

[GoddessOfGuinness]

36. No...

It's only some that are deranged. I don't hate them. They need guidance. That's why I'm not leaving.

One day, as was surely the case in Germany, the people I'm referring to will wake up and say, "My God! What have we done?!"

That's when they'll appreciate those who protested their bloody war, but realize that "I told you sos" are not going to rebuild the country or make amends for this grievous sin.

[Spider Jerusalem]

35. What do you mean when you say "America"?

The continent? Or the political entity known as the "United States of America", and the vague and idealised notion of same as "a land of freedom and opportunity", et cetera ad nauseam? If the latter, it never existed. Things may have been, at some point in the recent past, "better" in some sense, but in the larger sense, it was ever thus...it's just more overt now.

[Forkboy]

38. I dont love any country

Though Iceland comes close :)

[rockymountaindem]

40. Love.

This is the country that saved my family from murder and terror in Europe a century ago. It is this country and it's system which have allowed my ancestors to prosper and put me where I am today. I honestly don't think that my family's story could be repeated in any other country.

Every country has its problems and setbacks, but I believe with all my heart that my fellow citizens will always rise to the challenge and make America an even better place. I don't belive there is any country in the world with as much promise as America. Hopefully we will continue to realize it.

[noiretextatique]

41. detest

not hate

[WCGreen]

42. America is greater than the people who gather to call her home....

Think about it, we have survuved, pretty much intak for over 200 years and have been able to change, adapt to make us better....

I more than love my country, I trust that she will survive this unfortunate time that we live in....

One of the things I learned from AA was that this too shall pass...

As bad as it seems now, this too shall pass....

But to be truly American in spirit and in deed, we must fight for our country in anyway we can....

No one ever said it was going to be easy.....

It's a lot easier to give in to the darker side of America than embrace and trust her brightest side which is oprotunity for all who dare to take it.....

[bobo4u]

43. Its not America anymore.

Its unfortunately, become one giant corporation. Its not even close to what was envisioned by its founding fathers.

If I had the resources, I'd leave.

[Seabiscuit]

44. Neither. It's just a country I was born in.

There are a lot of things I "like" about it but too many things I absolutely "hate" about it. Mention the word "patriotism" and too many years of negative connotations sweep over my being. I just try to be objective about America. Not emotional at all about it.

There are a few things I dislike about France, but in general, I can say I LOVE France (and I'm only a quarter French). Can't quite say that about any other country.

[donheld]

45. I don't hate America but i am ashamed of a lot of it's history

from the massacring of the Indians, the slave history, the Jim Crow era etc.

[Aristus]

46. I love America. I wouldn't be here (in America and on DU)

if I didn't. Fuck the Freepers and their sanctimonious hallelujah patriotism.