Why being part of the 'hate America crowd' might be a good thing

First, let's define the term 'hate America crowd'. This is a purely Republican construct that is purely about domestic politics at its worst. The Republicans would have everyone believe that if you don't vote Republican you must hate America. As if they are the one true course.

But let's look at the term differently.

I love America. I have volunteered to give her some years of my life in service. I love her history. I love what she stands for.

I hate what she has become under Republican leadership. I hate her agression in the name of national security. I hate her isolationist policy of disengagement and bullying. I hate her dismissiveness toward our former allies and I hate her singular derision of those with whom we need to discuss differences.

I hate her attitude toward the least of our citizens. I hate her current bent for promoting cheating for power gains. I hate her elimination of the very fabric of our social safety net in favor of increased wealth for the richest among us. I hate the tone with which what passes as debate is conducted.

I hate America for her hate.

I KNOW what America was and what she can be again. I hate that those of us who wish to follow our traditional course of betterment for each and every citizen have been pushed aside by way of cheating and lying and hating and chicanery and the intentional infliction of mass delusion.

I love the once and future America. I do, indeed, hate the America of 2000 to 2006. But more than that, I hate those among us who have gotten us here by no good actions.

By being part of the 'hate America crowd' as defined here, each of us needs to use that feeling (hate for some of us, something apart from hate for others of us, but all powerful, energizing emotions) to propel us again forward. Forward with such strength that will CAN not and WILL not be denied.

The America we hate needs our love now more than ever.

"I love America. I hate what the Republicans have done to America."

equate 'hate America' with 'oppose the administration's policies'. They seem to feel that the policies of the current administration ARE America. You can bet that they didn't feel that way when Clinton in office.

Unfortunately, I think the seeds of that rot were planted a lot longer ago than we usually want to acknowledge, when Americans began to turn away from the Jeffersonian ideal and toward embracing the business and industrial ethics of Adam Smith and J.P. Morgan. When we began to apply the ideal of the rugged individualist to industrialists and businessmen success began to be defined in terms that were beneficial for individuals but costly for society as a whole. The disparity between poverty and wealth grew into a vast chasm and became a normal component of our social fabric. We became a nation of consumers, driven more by the tides of materialism than by real patriotism, and certainly more than by democratic philosophy, which has been retained largely as selfishness-- the "rights" of private property owners to trash the environment for quick profit, the right to cheap entertainment and trinkets, the right of the middle class to avoid the discomfort of ever having to see whose backs their luxury is borne opon, and the right of the wealthy to use their wealth to concentrate more riches and power into their hands. Our collective greed drives an imperial foreign policy that is unredeemably evil.

Much of the rest of the world hates us not because of our freedom, but because we construct our society-- however free it actually is or isn't-- on foundations laid upon their despair and oppression. They are beginning to get the clue that the real problem isn't just the American government, but rather the American social fabric of which that government is a part. The ugly American isn't a myth-- we have taken a noble progressive experiment in democracy and turned it into an abomination of greed, acquisitiveness, and empire. We have never ceased being a nation of slave holders-- we've simply redefined the notion of slavery to fit our changing needs in an increasingly global empire.

Jefferson would weep for what America has become. Much of what I love about America hasn't really existed for many decades now except in slogans and homilies taught to school children. We believed those homilies, we blithely accepted them as truths about America. The America we love is Jefferson's progressive vision of a land of enlightenment in which free people not only charted their own destinies, but in which they did so benevolently, guarding the central principles of democracy that afforded dignity and opportunity to all citizens. The America we're actually living in is not the America we love. That America is part myth now, and part propaganda. We will not get it back without another revolution, I'm afraid-- the people are too firmly attached to their self-destructive "rights"-- not the rights enshrined in the Constitution, but the implied rights of a mindlessly consuming society and the empire of oppression that keeps it afloat.

Take a good long look at America, without the blinders of patriotic jingoism, and the picture you'll see is not a pretty one.

One head is cut off and two grow in its place.

The latest mantra of "the DNC is moving to the left" is part and parcel of the conservative hydra. The "blame America first crowd" is another. In the end what do they support?

- Nativism
- Isolationism
- Authoritarianism
- Economic anarchy
- Social Darwinism

At two points in its history the GOP was "progressive". The first was at its founding (and particularly as the abolitionists gained control of the party). The second was after the Progressive Party and the Mugwumps showed the level of discontent in the country with the corporate/capitalist cliques of the Golden Age (and Teddy created the Bull Moose party). A gander at the platform of either the Progressive Party or the Bull Moose' would pass for radical extremist left-wingdom in this day and age (http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2798254&mesg_id=2798254 for excerpts from the Progressive platform.)

America has almost always been a progressive nation. It was FOUNDED on progressive principles and would have an even more progressive Constitution if it wasn't for the overpowerful merchant class of the late 18th century. Conservatives since Hamilton have tried to reform the country for venal reasons since then, and only the massive cash and new technologies have made a dent on the fundamental progressiveness of Americans over the past 60 years.

I too am angry about the GOP and conservatives turning the nation into something Bismark would have liked... although even Bismark believed in social programs such as national health. If Americans are progressives, Republicans are REGRESSIVES, the tools of a manipulative counterreformation that was not needed... counterrevolutionaries akin to the Contras that they supported not too long ago.

to my face.

(for any lurking chickenhawk freepers, a DD-214 is your discharge document from military service :eyes:)

I have hated the corrupt wealthy who exploited it's freedoms to form monopolies, start wars which benefit them, control other countries to their own benefit, and perpetuate a free labor class (slavery) and a desperate labor class (the poor). I am deeply sorry that my own freedoms are rooted in thousands of Native American deaths. I hate the Neo-Clowns whose true country is Multi-national Corporations.

And I'm tired of being told that loving your country means you can't also see yourself as a citizen of the world.

Americans believe in justice for all. Liberty. Freedom. Equality. Inalienable rights.

America is not what is happening now. America is a concept. And that is why burning a flag is a moot topic. America is the idea that created the Constitution. America is not what is being inflicted on the rest of the world in the name of greed and fear. America is not affraid of terrorism. America is not the United States.

The problem is, there are people who don't want to play by the rules. They don't want equality, and justice for all. They are in control of the government in the United States. We don't need to worry about America. But we are in grave danger.

America is something everyone loves, whether they know it or not. Greed has blinded many people, who are now on a different agenda than that which America stands for. And that is what I hate. They are not Americans. But they live in the United States.

Those who blindly follow a fraudulent leader are not Americans. They are United States citizens.


I could do better, but I don't know how to really say it. My back hurts like a knife is in it. I'm tired. I'm angry. And this is the best I can do. I hope you get the basic ideas, even if it's off in some ways.

Why give the wingnut slogans any circulation at all? Arguing with them gives them exposure. The slogans are chosen to be emotionally grabbing and memorable, so repeating them -- for any reason -- really just helps them advertise. It distracts from real issues and sucks up emotional energy that could best be used in other ways. Don't repeat them -- not even to argue with them.