I Love The America... That Can Be

Supposedly Hillary! said something like that.

I had a whole big-ass post on this a while ago, but Geoff in the comments says it tersely:

The problem with the liberal concept of "patriotism" is that they are patriotic only to their personal conception of what the country should be. This renders the idea of patriotism meaningless - it is trivial to say that one has a loyalty to one's own world views. Their unbridled criticism results, then, from the failure of the country to satisfy their individual tenets about what it should be.

The conservative idea of patriotism is more externalized - love of country as it is, even when it doesn't match up to our notions of what it should be. This tempers the criticism from the right, and provides a natural unity and cohesion (called "marching in lockstep" by our friends on the left).

The left is like the naive bride who marries a guy presuming that she can change him into someone she can love. The right is the bride who decides that she loves him, warts and all.

My post (I'll have to find it) noted that any husband who tells his wife "I kinda-sorta love you, in a way, but I hate almost all of your entire past history, and I despise your current values, but if you change all that, then I will unequivocally declare my love for you" is a guy who's looking to sleep in the garage.

But again and again this is what the left tells us constitutes their "love of country." They show their love by obsessing over the flaws of the supposed object of their affection.

Again-- hey, I'm as annoyed by this country as any liberal. Doesn't mean I have any hesitancy about being a patriot.

I guess the difference between a conservative's and a liberal's love for America is this:

Warts and all, conservatives are smart enough to realize this is the most beautiful wife we'll ever get.

Liberals, on the other hand, still have their eyes fixed firmly on the real object of their true affections-- Europe.

Conservatives may compare America to an unreal idealized version of what a country could be. A bit of harmless, nonthreatening fantasy.

Whereas liberals are always checking out the hot hootchie that lives across the pond called "Sweden."

posted by Ace at 02:57 AM

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