Patriotism

Reading Jonah Goldberg's latest, "The Tyrrany of Cliches" ... which I HIGHLY recommend.   It's an easier and shorter read than Liberal Fascism (and by his account much more fun to write), and it's peppered with wisdom and humor.

But this chapter I've just hit on ... "Dissent is the highest form of Patriotism" - Thomas Jefferson ... one of the first fun things he points out is that... there's no record of Thomas Jefferson ever having said this.  Plus Jonah goes on to say that even if he did say it it wouldn't make it any less dumb.

He gives an example of a soldier who falls on a grenade to save his buddies, and someone saying "hey, that guy sure was patriotic.  Almost as patriotic as that college professor who, from the comfort of his air-conditioned office called the Marines 'baby killers' and 'war criminals'".

he brings up John O'Sullivan's observation "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.  Treason is the highest form of dissent.  Therefore, treason is the highest form of patriotism.  QED."

But what tipped the scales and actually made me come here to post was this paragraph:

"When America elects a left-wing president, the tendency for conservatives is to like the government less and the country more.   This is because liberal presidents want th change America while conservative presidents want to change the government.  And when America elects conservative presidents, the Left tends to express its love for government more (and lament how it is being discredited by conservatives) and its fondness for America less."

I liked it right away, but had to put the book nook down for a second to let that sink in, and I just said ... "wow".   "Wow".   Like when you see an Escher drawing flip.  To conservatives, America is an ideal, a philosophy of how to look at what the balance of liberty and governance should be.   To the Left ... America is the government.   When they don't like the government, they don't like America.  When they like the government, they like America.  

Again, it's like those women who love you so much they want to change you into something completely different.  To the left, not only is the government "America", it is the means through which they want to make "America" what they want it to be.... which is distinctly not what America (see above paragraph) is to conservatives.