Blogs For Victory

Matthew Rothschild over at The Progressive:

…those things that truly made us great—the system of checks and balances, the enshrinement of our individual rights and liberties—have all been systematically assaulted by Bush and Cheney.

From the Patriot Act to the Military Commissions Act to the new FISA Act, and all the signing statements in between, we are less great today.

From Abu Ghraib and Bagram Air Force Base and Guantanamo, we are less great today.

From National Security Presidential Directive 51 (giving the Executive responsibility for ensuring constitutional government in an emergency) to National Security Presidential Directive 59 (expanding the collection of our biometric data), we are less great today.

From the Joint Terrorism Task Forces to InfraGard and the Terrorist Liaison Officers, we are less great today.

Admit it. We don’t have a lot to brag about today.

It is time, it is long past time, to get over the American superiority complex.

It is time, it is long past time, to put patriotism back on the shelf—out of the reach of children and madmen.

The madmen would presumptively be Bush and Cheney – now, to be fair to Mr. Rothschild, he does list other American sins which are noy intrinsic to Bush/Cheney – our consumerism and other evils, real and imagined, which the left dredges up from time to time to prove that we’re a bunch of creeps…and if we’d only all become leftists, all would be made better. The curious thing about Mr. Rothschild’s article is that it starts out condemning nationalism – even saying that it is a worse killer than religion, and that is a great concession on the part of any leftist. After all, the whole point of religion – and especially Christianity, and most especially Catholicism – is to kill and destroy and hold down…so to say that nationalism is a bigger ill is astounding, and demonstrates the author’s sincerity in being the anti-patriot.

And yet, he ends his bit by lamenting the way Bush and Cheney have allegedly done away with the US Constitution – in other words, he’s distressed over the supposed demise of a national government. This would seem to indicate that it isn’t really nationalism which gets Mr. Rothschild upset, but a sort of nationalism he doesn’t like. He’s convinced himself that if only we could recover our old, hallowed Constitutional structure, we’d be a better nation…no reactionary ever said it better (side note: the curious thing about leftists is how very reactionary they actually are).

Earlier in the piece the author condemns another writer for pointing out that we love our nation the same way we love our family – because they are ours. Mr. Rothschild doesn’t like this concept at all – in fact, he’s of the opinion that there’s something inherently wrong with loving the nation you’re born in simply because it is your native land – such love is somehow imposed and thus false. For Mr. Rothschild, we should love what is lovable – which is true, in a very narrow sense, but the real test of human character is to love what is unlovely.

It is easy to love the sublime, much harder to find the love in the ridiculous. Given that most human actions tend towards the latter, however, if we are to really love at all, then we’re going to have to set our minds to loving those things which we find disagreeable. Its either that, or hardly have any love at all. The great hearted person looks upon America – warts and all – and still says, “I love you”. Just as a good man will say of his wife that she is beautiful, even if her prime was some time ago – just as a kindly person will observe the flawed, remember his own flaws, and then seek out what is wonderful amongst the flaws, and build on that. If we’re to suspend our love of country – our patriotism, that is – until such time as our country exactly suits us, then we will wait forever, and never get what we want. To hold to Mr. Rothschild’s view is to hold a view common to a petulant child, but not something a mature mind concerns itself with.

I, on the other than, do love America – even Mr. Rothschild, and those like him. I wouldn’t dream of having an America without them – they are mine, and so I love them, even as I hope they’ll eventually change their views. I love this land not because it is perfect, but because it has much good in it, and I’ll concentrate on that and seek to expand that, in order that this land I love becomes more lovable over time, even though it will never through human agency become entirely lovable.