Dog and Patriot show
by Capt. Fogg
The difference between a cute, furry, cuddly pet and a piece of reeking, flyblown road kill is time. Time and tendentious usage has rendered the word patriotism repulsive and most often meaningless and for my part I believe that, like faith, it's just another of those manufactured virtues designed to dupe people into acting against their own interest and in the interests of power -- and feel proud to do it.
George Washington warned us in his farewell address against "the impostures of pretended patriotism" and so does Larisa Alexandrovna at the Huffington Post who correctly identifies the Republicans' deliberate confusion of "rabid nationalism" with patriotism.
I have little doubt that this campaign will be about patriotism: jingoism, flag worship, military heroism, religious hysteria and a host of blurry, heart warming but pretended virtues, and not about the grotesque economic comedy, the power-grabbing, and the rest of the scofflaw proclivities of the Republican party.
What I want to hear and what we are not going to hear is how the next president is going to renounce signing statements, re-affirm our committment to treaty obligations, restore an independent judiciary and commit to constitutional law. What I want to hear is a committment to begin to pay down the loans that have made us dependent on foreign powers and to pay it down without simply printing the money. What I need to hear is a renunciation of our imperialist ambitions toward the Middle East. I know -- I'm a dreamer.
The difference between a cute, furry, cuddly pet and a piece of reeking, flyblown road kill is time. Time and tendentious usage has rendered the word patriotism repulsive and most often meaningless and for my part I believe that, like faith, it's just another of those manufactured virtues designed to dupe people into acting against their own interest and in the interests of power -- and feel proud to do it.
George Washington warned us in his farewell address against "the impostures of pretended patriotism" and so does Larisa Alexandrovna at the Huffington Post who correctly identifies the Republicans' deliberate confusion of "rabid nationalism" with patriotism.
I have little doubt that this campaign will be about patriotism: jingoism, flag worship, military heroism, religious hysteria and a host of blurry, heart warming but pretended virtues, and not about the grotesque economic comedy, the power-grabbing, and the rest of the scofflaw proclivities of the Republican party.
What I want to hear and what we are not going to hear is how the next president is going to renounce signing statements, re-affirm our committment to treaty obligations, restore an independent judiciary and commit to constitutional law. What I want to hear is a committment to begin to pay down the loans that have made us dependent on foreign powers and to pay it down without simply printing the money. What I need to hear is a renunciation of our imperialist ambitions toward the Middle East. I know -- I'm a dreamer.
Labels: patriotism
posted by Libby Spencer at 10:15 AM
4 Comments:
Yes, you are a dreamer, but dream on. Sometimes dreams come true. The campaigns, any campaigns, have become no more than Pepsi and Coke ads. It's all about branding because that is what the American public understands and responds to. The difference is, now in Coke and Pepsi ads, the advertisers are supposed to tell the truth about their products. They even have to list the ingredients. There are no such restrictions on candidates in campaigns.
Its all frivolous hype but that's what we like to hear. American's would be bored to death with candidates that drolled on about their opinions on issues and their social policies and such.
No, astound us with sleaze, show us some dirty laundry, expose us to your opponents smelly political genitals. That's what turns us on.
Sadly Obama won't repudiate any of the anti american garbage if he's installed, even if he wanted to. He wouldn't be allowed to jeopordize all the fascist gains of the last few years because he won't be able to. Any new administration will be saddled with far too much destruction and ugliness from the current mob, and if Obama tried they'd just plain kill him.
As I said, we're not going to hear it.
I have the same dream Fogg. I'm afraid we're doomed to living in the much uglier reality.
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