Posted on 10/16/2001 10:00:32 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
TownHall.com: Conservative Columnists: Don Feder
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Don Feder (back to story)
October 17, 2001
Patriotism on the rise, liberals cringe
Liberals are confronting a new horror -- not the threat of more hijackings or the looming menace of biological warfare, but a resurgence of patriotism.
In one of its tendentious life-style features, The Boston Globe recently agonized over all of the flag-waving since Sept. 11. "For some people (i.e., our editors), the sudden glut of American flags is reminiscent of the hoopla that precedes Homecoming Week at college," the Globe sneered.
The paper cautioned readers on how easily patriotism can evolve into militarism, chauvinism and storm troopers. "But the flag is only a symbol, and as the comic and political commentator Barry Crimmins says, there were a lot of flags in Nazi Germany, but no freedom."
An article in the Los Angeles Times quotes a first-grade teacher in Madison, Wis., on why she refuses to lead her class in the pledge of allegiance. "Mandating patriotism is a really scary thing. It leads to nationalism and ultimately, to fascism," says Suzy Grindrod.
But educators like Grindrod have no problem mandating multiculturalism or indoctrinating students in the lies about America's past contained in the National History Standards.
Why is it when liberals discuss the American flag, the conversation so often turns to the Third Reich? Recall that these are the twits who, in their student days, spelled America with a "k."
A symbol is only a symbol? How insightful! It's true, the flag isn't a system of government. If the flag were sufficient to guarantee our liberty, we wouldn't need the Constitution.
Though they'll swear by all that's holy (for them, safe sex and the rain forest) that they aren't really anti-American, since the Vietnam War, liberals have had an allergic reaction to manifestations of patriotism.
Most of us view Old Glory as representative of a nation founded on freedom, of the sacrifices of our military, of America riding to the rescue of beleaguered folk from Cuba in 1898 to Europe in 1944 and Kuwait in 1991. We're proud of it, as we are proud to be Americans.
When liberals look at the flag, they see only dispossessed Indians, racial segregation, napalm dropped on Vietnamese villages and children making jeans in Third World sweatshops.
Even after an unprovoked attack on their homeland, by creatures so evil Hell would spurn them, and 5,000 of their fellow Americans dead, public-broadcasting donors just can't get over their red, white and blue aversion.
Writing in the Sunday New York Times on Sept. 30, George Packer explained that the flag wasn't displayed in his household because, "Display wasn't just politically suspect, it was simply in bad taste, sentimental, primitive, sometimes aggressive."
In other words, love of country is the province of veterans, country music fans, guys with pickup trucks and rifle racks and other high-testosterone, low-IQ types. Liberal snobbery meets liberal paranoia.
Katha Pollitt, a columnist for the Nation, told her 13-year-old daughter (who asked for a flag for their home) that, "The flag stands for jingoism and vengeance and war."
But even in its bastions, the left is losing ground. At the University of California at Berkeley, a Sept. 24 "Rally for America" actually outdrew an anti-war demonstration a day earlier.
On college campuses across the country, employment with the Central Intelligence Agency is suddenly a very appealing prospect for seniors. At a University of Maryland job fair, the CIA recruitment table had the longest line.
Normal Americans don't view the flag as a danger to our freedom. They don't think pledging allegiance to the flag Americans fought under in World War II will somehow resurrect fascism.
On Oct. 11, a group of runners started out from Boston's Logan Airport with an American flag which will be carried in relays across the country, to arrive in Los Angeles in time for Veterans Day. Organizers describe the response from motorists along the route as "absolutely overwhelming."
Liberals must feel lonely in the midst of all this unabashed flag-waving. To help them cope, perhaps Turner Classic Movies could run a "M*A*S*H" marathon, hosted by Jane Fonda, or they could be equipped with blinders, so they won't be visually assaulted by dangerous displays of "jingoism, vengeance and war."
©2001 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
townhall.com
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Me too. Now have some more.
Their philosophy is sowing singns of being obsolete. Just before WW2 it was considered chichi to lean in to socialism beit Maxisist or National. Those notions went dormant untill the '60's. A lot of Americans begain to drift away conventional values, because of the percieved MAD policy of the Defence Department. With the fall of the USSR fears communism began to dissolve. and new thoughts took root about how a socialistic structure could fit into America. It wouldn't require a bloody revolution, just filter out the "incorrect" thought process. Just eliminate the bodies of intelegence that comes out of the military, business, science and religion.
On 9-11-2001 all this theory hit a brick wall. Correct thought is toothless in the presence of real danger. Real danger dosn't follow rules of correct thought. Real danger wants you dead. Time to take out the garbage of political correctness and its prodigy.
Ouch. Makes me cross my legs just thinking about it.
Although we've been battling these socialist scum for the past hundred years, I'm grounded enough to know that this crisis isn't the 'knock-out' blow for liberalism. These lunatics always manage to survive only because this country lacks the guts to call them what they really are and reject their Utopian wet dream fantasies on our collective dime.
Our "sportsmanship" in politics forces our own to take pity on wretches such as these, only for the sake of encouraging competition in political discourse.
The best we can do is marginalize them in the view of less passionate American voters and force their party to move further right against their will.
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