It is time for all of us latte drinkin', Hollywood lovin,' Prius drivin', tree-huggers to shut up the wing-nuts and take back patriotism. It is time to have a big old liberal PDA with America. There are too many lunatics like Rep. Bachmann and Governor Palin running around all over our televisions, acting like we blue state Americans aren't as "pro-America" as the people in "real America," and I am beyond over it. If I were a cartoon there would be smoke coming out of my ears.
If patriotism is defined as a love for or devotion to one's country, then we have let the wrong people interpret what patriotism looks like in America. If love is not blind worship, then liberals love America too. Even the meaning of our flag has been narrowed to symbolize war, greed, and conservatism. We have allowed the patriotic act of defending our country against intolerance, bumbling military strategies, and the harebrained economic schemes of greed-blinded robber barons to be twisted into accusations of hatred of America. "Liberal" America is heartbroken and outraged over the weakening of our country and our constitution by the radical excesses of the past eight years. The anger in liberal circles at the neo-con Bush Administration comes from a fierce and burning love for our country, and we need to repeat that again and again.
Every time we step away from our patriotic symbols because we think they are somehow too Republican, or militaristic, we take away from the range of ways to express love for our country and we give them up to the right. We can't afford to stay stuck in a game of endless symbolic tug of war with the shrinking right wing fringe. When people were upset by the absence of a flag pin on Obama's lapel, he said that patriotism should be measured by actions. This is true, but he had no problem with wearing a flag pin either. He is not defensive about his patriotism, and he did not allow it to become an exclusively conservative symbol. He simply put a flag pin back on his lapel without any fanfare.
I live right on the edge of liberal Hollywood; I was raised by New York intellectual radical hippies in Northern California. San Francisco was my home for 17 years, and my lefty, gay-rights lovin' eyes well up with tears when I hear our national anthem. I get goose bumps when I read the Declaration of Independence, and I love the flag. My favorite tour of all time was Independence Hall in Philadelphia. My conservative father-in-law and I stood together where the Constitution was argued and eventually ratified, and we were equally moved to see the birthplace of the ideas that formed our country. I admit it; I get all mushy for America. When the Constitution was ratified, Barack Obama would have been legally considered 3/5ths of a person. My grandmother was born without the right to vote, but our system allows for the expansion of rights and freedoms for all Americans and places limits on the power of our public servants. The whole point is to make America more free, but if you cannot see her clearly, if you are wearing the fear goggles that have been foisted on you by the oh so "Liberal Media", you will not know how to make her better. If someone you loved was getting into unprovoked fist-fights with the wrong enemy, spending their children's college fund, teetering on bankruptcy, smoking like a chimney, littering, spying on and being rude to their neighbors, wouldn't you be obligated to tell them they were wrong? It's hard to look clearly at what we love, but as some wise sage said, freedom 'aint free (see how I took that one back?). We need to stop squawking at the radical right and simply reassert the meaning of patriotism and separate it from nationalism and jingoism. The right wing cannot have patriotism all to themselves anymore.
So love your country loudly--fly a flag on your house, pin one in your lapel, sing the national anthem, slap a flag right next to the Obama sticker on your Prius, and remind yourself, and everyone around you, that every time you do anything to defend our country from the excesses of radical conservatism, every time that you seek to expand the rights and freedoms of others -even those you disagree with- you are a freedom loving patriot.
