Liberal Love is Real Love (pucker up, America!)

I'm getting pretty fed up with right-wing bloggers and their canard that "liberals hate America."

If one demonstrates love for this country by respecting its laws, then judging by the orgy of corruption, the scandals, the indictments in Washington, it's Republican "conservatives" who seem the most hateful and contemptuous of our land n' laws. And mind you, with Democrats an endangered species on the Hill, the graft and bribery must be of epic proportion just to be seen through the lockstepped interference from the Right.

With this in mind, and with the secret prisons we're building around the globe (to spread Freedom, remember? Isn't that best done in secret prison camps?), I scribbled this comment on Thinkprogress.org, one of my favorites, this morning:

If liberals “hate America,” then the far right Republicans don’t even know what America IS.

I suspect that New McCarthyites see the U.S. as the ultimate force for good in the world and beyond criticism. They see other nations as backward and unenlightened. To them, the ends will always justify the means because the ends - our national interests - are always unimpeachably “good.”

This is laughable to any student of world history. Has there ever been a “good” nation? Nations seek to meet their own needs and interests. Period.

America is not a piece of land, or some people, or a flag. Simply put America IS the means, not the end. The rule of law, the principle that no one, no institution is above the law, and that knowledge of the truth by the citizenry is essential in order for us to make reasoned and informed choices, is the most sacred founding principle. There is no America beyond the Law.

Just as the Koran gives Iran its identity, the constitution, state and federal laws, written by the citizens in the form of their elected officials, give us our identity. We give OURSELVES this identity. This was the WHOLE IDEA of America in the first place. Once we become “God’s favorite country” and play by whatever rules we make up as we go along, we are no longer any different from your average incredibly strong, hypocritical bully.

I love my country enough to tell it when it’s done wrong. I won’t enable this dysfunctional father of ours by refusing to question his obviously questionable judgments.

I fail to understand how Right wingers don’t get upset when we torture and kill people with no due process and little if any proof of their guilt. “They’re terrorists and you shouldn’t be defending them,” they say, “you clearly hate America.”

Great intellects they are, eh?

I defend America when its cynical leaders try to destroy its credibility in the world, and try to destroy transparency and the rule of law at home.

This is hating America?