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December 29, 2005
Patriotism and the Right
Yesterday afternoon I was driving home, listening to my Sirius radio. I was a bit bored by the music so decided that I would check out some of the talk shows, which I had never spent much time doing. I turned to Talk Left and found myself listening to an interview with a "well-known" right wing blogger I did not know. He was in the middle of a harangue about the left, how un-American they were, unpatriotic and really traitors for not supporting the President, the war, and everything else he could think of. This attitude is not new, others supporters of the right have said the same thing, so I don't mention it to bring you news, however I do think it is interesting from a couple of perspectives.
First, it is an interesting political strategy to accuse anyone who doesn't support you of being a traitor, using a "you are with us or against us" philosophy. It immediately puts the opposition on the defensive, which is a good thing. People on the political fence would be reluctant to support a group, or policies, which might be labeled un-American. It also rallies ones supporters and strengthens their resolve and righteousness. "We are right, you are wrong, we are good, you are bad." A traitor is not only bad, but horrible, alien, and cancerous. A traitor is represented as a threat to American history, its culture, its freedoms, and its values. From a political standpoint it makes sense to depict your opponent as evil, somehow sub-human. I know when I was playing team sports in high school and college, I always thought of our opponents as somehow different and it was always in a bad way. They were thugs, or dumber, or something. I was never sure what it was but I did know that no matter how I rationalized it I still carried around a sense of superiority. However if I happened to meet someone from that school during the summers, I was always amazed that they were normal. I knew it was stupid, even at the time, but I did feel that way. Republicans are doing the same thing here, fanning the flames of those same prejudiced tendencies, painting opponents as evil, cancerous, destructive elements threatening the very values that make our country great. Of course, they don't want to mention that the very thing that has made our country as great as it is has been its open, free, contentious discussion. It is the very thing they are railing against.
Second, those of the right who accuse the liberals of being traitors seem to advocate that we all conform to whatever the President deems appropriate. We should trust him completely. We should accept the fact that he can operate outside the law, lie or mislead us about wars, threats, finances, budgets, wiretaps, credit checks, whatever, all in the name of fighting an ambigous enemy for as long as he deems necessary, for this is not a war that has a traditional enemy and just ends. This struggle could last for decades. We are to drop our system of checks and balances, congressional and judicial oversight and just believe the "Dear Leader" indefinitely. Whatever he says goes, everyone who questions or doubts him is a traitor. Is this not acting in a manner which is opposed to the values that made America what it is? No open discussion, no questioning leaders. Do what they say or else?
So I wonder, who is it that is really supporting American values and who are the traitors? It is just something I was pondering on a cold, rainy, end of the year day.
Posted by Chip Spear at December 29, 2005 10:09 AM
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