Why Patriots are Killing the Country

It's the "patriots" who are dragging the country down and destroying the moral fiber of the nation, not the dissidents, not the critics. The question is "why". But first the "how", for those who are stuck on this first question.

The how is easy to explain. "My country right or wrong" is a formula for disaster because no person, no country, no ball club, no political party and no nation can get better if they never admit where they are wrong. The best companies have really good evaluations of all the aspects of their company life. The good ball clubs get better because the coach had the human decency to care enough for his/her players to correct their mistakes. But, for the patriot, if you criticize the nation, you don't love the nation.

Patriots are weakest where they should be the strongest. The biggest economic, political and moral mistake a nation can make is to make war for no good economic, political or moral reason. The "patriots" have no criteria. They never met a war they didn 't like, because the patriot believes against all odds, all facts, all history, that the nation can win any war. We are, after all #1. The problem is that war has proven to be the achilles heals of every developed country that thought it was #1. Wars bring down both the victor and the defeated. But, the patriots are absolutely blind to this damage that war does to the nation, so they just call for war whenever anyone seems to take exception that we ought to determine the fate of the whole world in a way that, of course, favors us.

So, if you believe that there is still a problem with women having equal rights in the United States of America, Rush Limbaugh and all his patriotic crowd will come down on you like a heavy mountain calling you all kinds of names and, if not stating it directly, implying that you are not "patriotic" (which, given the true identity of "patriots" is actually a compliment). This is not the heart of the problem, although it is a problem because it makes it more difficult to have civilized conversation which is something that could help the country. The problem is that the "patriotic" clamor delays and sometimes succeeds in stopping efforts to make this a better nation for women and, thus, for all of us.

Now the critic may pay his taxes which is the most patriotic thing to do, but that doesn't qualify him/her as a true American. You have to believe in American supremacy (at any cost to the nation), support all wars, and not be always criticizing the nation. The "patriot", on the other hand doesn't have qualms about reducing contributions to the common pot; doesn't mind if the gap between rich and poor gets wider because if you do support increased taxes to pay common expenses or think that more people ought to get a living wage and the rich ought to share proportionately in the cost of having good roads, bridges, health care, retirement, etc. for all citizens you are not a patriot, you are a liberal, or in some patriotic circles a "communist."

So, you want to improve the country, then be quiet and don't say anything that could lead us to learn something about how to become better...that would be a criticism and that is not patriotic. Women will get equal pay for equal work if we just all shut up. And we will all get better health care at a more reasonable cost is all just repeat the mantra: "America has the best health care system in the world." We can all count on Social Security being there is we just shut up about the rich getting away with what amounts to taxpayer murder when they pay a smaller percentage of their income to the common pot than does their own secretaries.

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that the country is all of us, all the land we live on, all the histories we have brought to and make in the country and the ideas and rules that are set down in our constitution and Bill of Rights. This is a country that, in fact, the "patriots" don't like at all and would love to bring down and that is why the patriots insist on bringing down the country (if the country means all of us and our Constitution and Bill of Rights)

"Patriots" don't like most of the people who live in the country. They don't like the poor for sure, nor the critics, nor the legal immigrants who don't yet speak the language; nor the gays or lesbians, or the liberals and certainly not single moms who get food stamps. They don't like sick people or disabled people because they cost a lot of money. They don't like black people because, black people secretly love Africa more than the US as go the Latinos love South America (or wherever they come from) more and Asians are part of a conspiracy to turn the US into a colony of China (as though our bankers haven't already done that). They don't think the constitution and Bill of Rights should apply to anyone except the original ones - the white ones of the male species. So, the parts of the official guiding documents that seem to apply to the poor, to the black and Latinos and women....these are all part of the later conspiracies to change the idea of the country.

The "patriots" like white people who think like them and people who wear uniforms and rich people because someday they all are going to be rich and they too will need the ones in uniform to protect their wealth. So, they really love the country as long as that does not include about...oh, let's say, 70-80% of the people.

Here's the good news. The "patriots" are many but still in a minority. Most of the citizens still love the country in the holistic sense and still consider criticism as healthy, normal and sometimes leading to correcting mistakes and improving life. Most people think that the best way to support soldiers is to make sure they don't have to die for no good reason or get traumatized for life because the ideologues and corporate leaders decide its time to flex some muscle.

We can pray for even more "unpatriotic" nation as this would definitely increase the quality of life in the country, possibly lead to a more just nation and definitely improve the possibilities that we could live in peace for long periods of time. And, by the way, prosperity of the kind that reaches out to all of us would also be a result of this more "unpatriotic" nation.