yeah, more politics. of the anti-america variety, apparently.

[ashesofautumn]

After Michelle Obama spoke at the Democratic convention, Jon Stewart did a bit where he showed clips of different talking heads suggesting that one of the things she had to do was prove just how patriotic she is. He said,"She's GOT to, she's a Democrat! She must prove she loves America, as opposed to Republicans who everybody knooows loves America

Comments

[fpb]

Well, no. The reason why she "has to prove she is patriotic" - or rather, why the Democrat leadership told her so - is that when Obama got the nomination, she made the incredibly stupid remark that "this was the first time in her life that she felt proud of her country". That - from a Harvard-educated high-flying lawyer with top-level connections in Chicago - did not go down too well. There was a feeling that she had had nothing but advantages from her country, and that to say that the only thing that ever had made her proud of it was her husband being nominated showed a certain amount of ingratitude.

[ashesofautumn]

Well, that's not the point.

I'm perfectly aware of the context of what they were saying about Michelle Obama, and the comment about being really proud of her country, but I would say that Jon Stewart's point remains, particularly about Democrats in general.

(And so does my point in copying and pasting said quote in response to Sarah Palin's "pro-America" comments.)

As "elite" as us liberal socialist coastals are, the Republicans are the ones who are exclusionary in their rhetoric or appeal. Why would I want to cast my vote for someone who doesn't think I am "pro-America" (a litmus test that is absurd in itself) because I'm from a big city in the northeast?

As ridiculous as I think many popular liberal politicians or thinkers are, I don't often come across them talking about how conservatives hate America and want to take it down. The opposite isn't true.

[fpb]

The reason I find Republicans ridiculous is their wallet-patriotism - my love for my country stops where taxation begins. However, when they say that a certain kind of international left is committed to blaming America for everything, they are nothing but correct. (I might add that Israel shares in that privilege.) It is both an inherited reflex absorbed from the years of the cold war - where moral equivalence was the strongest weapon in Soviet hands - and a natural reflex for people to whom domestic politics is the only real kind of politics, and who therefore do not believe that real enemies exist except in Washington DC. To give one instance on a subject that matters a lot to me: I do not think that any reform is more needed in America than the establishment of a universal right to basic health treatment, however it is administered (and I admit that the structure of the country means that a British-style NHS, let alone the kind of authoritarian nonsense they have in Canada, is out of the question). The ugly sophistry that says

[ashesofautumn]

I think no honest Republican (of course, there are other kinds, but scoundrels are universal) would treat someone like you, who tried to join the US armed forces and who has/has had relatives both in them and in Tsahal, with anything except respect.

Except I, personally, am not the point.

Maybe someone like her would respect someone in my position. Yet am I the only one in the blue states, urban centers, or otherwise non "pro-America" locations in this position? Of course not.

To me, what she said is not acceptable. Not only what she said here, but an exclusionary attitude that is reflected in all too many Republican representatives. Perhaps I am even more disappointed because I am a registered Republican, a box I checked on my 18th birthday, and I want more from them than these pathetic tactics. I still believe in conservatism, I just don't believe in the current GOP.