Patriotism and liberals - heraldblog

Patriotism and liberals

There's a terrific discussion over at Legal Fiction about liberal cynicism v. conservative patriotism. Once again Publius shows that he's one of the most interesting, and compelling voices in blogdom. His point is that patriotism still beats in the heart of every liberal - it just needs a compelling reason to be heard, and acted upon. Cynicism is a reaction to the overuse of patriotic symbolism and rhetoric. Bush had a golden opportunity post-9/11 to make patriotism compelling once again, but the former governor of Texas instead used the attack as an opportunity to divide Americans with his bungled war on Iraq.

If that sounds a little too Brooksian for you, neatly dividing Americans into two little piles and then piling on, then read this little gem. It's a comment left by Patrick, who seriously needs his own weblog.
On September 11, I remember hearing the news reports periodically through the day, as I went about my job, which at the time required getting in and out of a truck a lot. So everything was slowly spaced out, piece by piece.

The first report was that a plane had struck the world trade center. No details about what kind of plane, or what circumstances. We figured it was some small private plane, and my coworker said it was a good thing because the pilot was probably dead, after having screwed up this bad. I said that if someone hit the WTC, it wasn't an accident.

Later reports clarified that it was a large commercial jet, that it was a terrorist attack, and that the buildings had collapsed. Every radio report was worse than the last, and we had to dwell on them while we worked. We weren't the sorts of employees who could take breaks to listen to the radio, even under these circumstances. So there was a lot of time to work, and think.

Every time I thought about what the people in the airplanes, and in the WTC must have gone through, I felt sick to my stomache. And when doing manual labor, your mind runs in a certain way- in circles, over and over the same ground.

Even with all of this, I remember thinking about how much things were going to change in this country. I remember thinking that we were in for a dismantling of individual rights and freedoms, in the name of patriotism. And it wasn't much past lunch when I heard the first politician on the radio demanding just that.

I'm not really sure what the point of this story is. My reactions were, in order, suspicion that things were really worse than the radio suggested, misery on behalf of the people killed, and fear of just how much my country would be changed by fear and patriotism. All of these were justified.

I don't know that its really patriotism I despise, although sometimes I think it is. I am currently in law school, and what is secretly the biggest reason that JAG feels like an attractive career choice is that I liked saluting the flag when I was a boy scout. JAG officers get to do that. Putting your hand over your heart has a phony, worthless impression for me, no doubt from having been forced to stand and mumble every morning in grade school. Saluting in the Boy Scouts felt sincere. I did that because I wanted to, not because I'd get a detention if I did not. I'd like that feeling again.

So maybe its not patriotism I dislike. Maybe its just people talking about patriotism, and the way we express it here. I don't know. There's probably an optimistic, sappy patriot in my heart somewhere, but I've got 60+ years expected life span left for the world to kill that sappy patriot for once and for all.

Thanks for letting me ramble.
Not a problem.

1.7.05 03:07

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Patrick (18.7.05 19:04)
Thanks for posting this. The email I use on weblogs is my spamtrap email, so I didn't check it and notice until now, but I appreciate it.