Posts filed under 'patriotism'
August 20th, 2008
A scientific survey released today shows that most Americans are fed up with politicians exploiting patriotism “in a cheap and empty way” and prefer Barack Obama’s framing of patriotism as activism over John McCain’s more traditional approach of honoring the nation’s past.
Yet, while majorities consider both presidential candidates to be patriotic, McCain leads Obama on that score by 18 percentage points.
The story is HERE.
July 22nd, 2008
UPDATE: In addition to the misstatements by John McCain that are the focus of the post below, he also made a first-class gaffe that is creating quite a stir tonight.
The problem is that McCain, during an interview with Katie Couric on CBS, DISPLAYED an astonishing misunderstanding of the sequence of events in Iraq with respect to the recent Surge and the so-called Anbar Awakening.
McCain says the Surge begat the Awakening. In reality, the Awakening predated the Surge.
We’re likely to hear lots more about this over the next few days.
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John McCain, having found himself boxed in by the rush of recent events and the inconsistency of his past rhetoric, is wildly flailing about, leveling scurrilous and patently false charges against Barack Obama.
Today, McCain said Obama wants America to lose the war in Iraq, which amounts to saying that the many troops and veterans who support Obama are either stupid or also want to lose the war.
Some vets are FIGHTING BACK against such slanderous crap.
McCain also said today that Obama has done ”a great disservice to young men and women who are serving and have sacrificed” by denying the valor and success of their efforts in the field.
That is patently false. As we see HERE, Obama has repeatedly hailed the efforts of the troops and has praised them at virtually every turn.
McCain, whose own honorable service in the military is acknowledged by virtually all Americans, is dishonoring himself by impugning the patriotism of his rival for the presidency and, by implication, the supporters of that rival.
July 18th, 2008
From the Washington state branch of the party that invented patriotism and remains its staunchest champion, we get this stirring message:
July 7th, 2008
Yes, children, “begrudging” is a big word. Can you use it in a sentence?
Here’s one: “Mr. Black was begrudging when he said THIS.”
Another thing, boys and girls. Mr. Black is a petty man. Do you know what “petty” means?
July 4th, 2008
Gallup is out with a fascinating — and, in some respects, surprising — new POLL on attitudes among Americans regarding patriotism.
The principal results of the survey are that Americans rank these actions in descending order of patriotic importance: 1) Voting in elections; 2) Serving in the U.S. military; 3) Saying the Pledge of Allegiance; 4) Supporting U.S. policies around the world; 5) Protesting U.S. policies you personally oppose; and 6) Wearing an American flag pin.
Among the more interesting of the survey results is that relatively superficial displays of patriotism, like reciting the Pledge and wearing flag pins, are of far greater importance to the oldest and least-educated of respondents than to younger and better-educated folks.
Overall, when asked how much wearing a flag pin indicates that a person is patriotic, 40 percent of respondents said “not much” or “not at all,” and fewer than one-third said “a great deal.”
So much for the relative importance of the foolish media fuss of a few months about whether Barack Obama wears a flag pin frequently enough.
It’s encouraging to see that protesting U.S. policies with which you personally disagree is generally seen as more patriotic than wearing a flag pin.
My biggest disappointment with the poll is that it didn’t include any of what I call the “more-patriotic-than-thou” questions, which invariably produce amusing results.
For example, two years ago, Fox News gave us this report on one of its polls:
“Two out of three people (66 percent) say they think they are more patriotic than the average American, up from 57 percent last year (June 2005). One in five says they are as patriotic as others (20 percent) and 13 percent less so.
“Republicans (78 percent) are significantly more likely than Democrats (56 percent) to say they are more patriotic than other Americans.”
Big surprise there, right? To hear some Republicans tell it, their party invented patriotism while everybody else was plotting the downfall of our country.
But really, how stupid is it that most Americans think they’re more patriotic than most Americans? Obviously, they can’t all be right about that.
Of course, too many Americans, regardless of party, seem to regard patriotism as a competition. (”I love America more than you do?” “Like hell you do! My goosebumps at the sound of the National Anthem are bigger than yours.” “Yeah, well the flag on my porch is bigger than yours.” “So what? I wear a flag pin in the shower. Do you?” “You wanna take this outside, pal?” “Any time, buddy.”)
As for me, I don’t consider myself more or less patriotic than most Americans. I just want to wish everybody a happy Independence Day, whether or not you wear a flag pin.
July 2nd, 2008
In a follow-up to yesterday’s REBUTTAL of the pseudo-patriotic rantings of conservative pundit Jonah Goldberg, I offer HERE a worthy essay from Larisa Alexandrovna.
UPDATE: The quote on the bumper sticker in the photo is misattributed to Thomas Jefferson. See the comments section for details.
July 1st, 2008
This is pretty funny:
Conservative scribbler Jonah Goldberg has DECLARED in one of his writings that Barack Obama is somehow unpatriotic for having said, “I’m going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great…”
That Obama guy sure has a lot of nerve to suggest that this country is not already great. He must be some kind of anti-American Muslim or something, just like the guys at the water cooler were saying this morning.
Oh, but wait! When Ronald Reagan accepted the Republican presidential nomination in 1980, he said: “For those who have abandoned hope, we’ll restore hope and we’ll welcome them into a great national crusade to make America great again.”
Well, Jonah, are you going to apologize to Obama or to Reagan’s many admirers or what?
May 29th, 2008
Most of us who are fully evolved homo sapiens rarely, if ever, waste our time listening to radio comedian Rush Limbaugh. Too much exposure to that kind of stuff is just not good for your mental health.
However, I’m going to take a risk here and recommend that you read THIS TRANSCRIPT of an exchange between El Rushbo and one of his brilliant callers on the subject of patriotism. It’s tragic and funny and frightening, all at the same time. (But if you feel dizzy or nauseated at any point, stop reading and move on to something else here at Applesauce.)
May 7th, 2008
We can always count on Republican presidential candidates or their surrogates to question the patriotism of their political rivals.
Paul Waldman WARNS US that this year will be no different.
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