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...to a fellow Union member on our BBS a few years ago in response to the accusation that liberals were not being patriotic because they question this Administration. That same old idiotic refrain "love it or leave it" is addressed as well, but I thought this reply is better posted in its entirety.
"H***, excuse my French here and I'll apologize beforehand for anyone I may offend here but that is pure HORSESHIT!!!! If you live in a democracy, it is only right that we should question anything that stinks in government. I don't care about Democrat, Republican, left-wing, right-wing, liberal, conservative or Ukranian!!! If you see nothing "fishy" with this Administration (look at the headlines every day), keep sticking your head up your ass. The truth, hopefully, will come out eventually. It usually does.
Just remember our "founding fathers" who had the courage to question a tyrannical monachy 3,000 miles away. they were "liberal" as hell; having these funny ideas about a new form of government. Patriotism does not mean marching "lock step" with the party line, but questioning things for the good of the country so as to make this a better country for our children and grandchildren. Hell, by your reasoning, since the German people did not do enough to question Nazism they were true patriots and ditto for good Communists. They did not "question" things but went along with the "party line". I really get tired of that same old refrain when one questions something in this country that you should "love it or leave it." Well, the very reason that I love this country is all the more reason to speak out against injustices and the chicanery of our government, no matter which party is in power. Are you saying that when Clinton was in power and people were speaking out against him and his Administration (albeit for spurious reasons) that they were being "unpatriotic"?? The right seems to be applying a double standard here. Supreme Court Justice Robert W. Jackson once said "It is not the function of the government to keep the people from falling into error, but rather it is the function of the people to keep the government from falling into error." If we fail in this duty, we have diminished our democracy and rights, bit by bit, and then we deserve what we get for failing to keep watch over our government, no matter what party is in office. In the most basic sense, the government and this Administration are our employees and they all work for us, not the other way around. Often this if forgotten. If we see something not right, don't we as employers have the right to question our employees??
Brother C******, it's not Bush's proclaimation that "I'm a Christian" that bothers most people; its the fact that many people believe that the United States is a "Christian" nation, and believe that all other theocratical belief systems should be suppressed such as is done in many Arabic countries, who base their govermental model on Islamic belief and laws and to a lesser extent, Israel, where being Islamic or Christian is akin to being a second class citizen there. Most other countries that are predominately Islamic or Jewish have no system of separation of church and state, which is guaranteed to us by our Constitution. Yes, I'll agree, our population is predominately Christian in its makeup, but to say we are a "Christian" nation, no. Yes, this country was founded on Christian-Judeo values (most of the framers were Protestants after all); I don't believe there was a Jew or Muslim in the whole bunch (with Charles Carroll of Carrolton being the sole Catholic) But the framers had the foresight and wisdom to include a provision for the separation of church and state. Thank God (yes, I also believe in a Supreme Being, but I am agnostic when it comes to specific religious beliefs) we have this Constitution of ours that prohibits an establishment of one official state religion over another, and serves to keep people like this in check. It's worked well for 214 years and counting, despite the wishes and desires of some in the Conservative "Christian" religious right. Their intolerance of other belief systems belies their "Christian" label.
Don't you find it ironic, also, that the great majority of these "religious bigots" are Protestant?? It was the Protestants who first broke off from the Catholic faith, because they found the Roman Church "intolerable". This is not to single out Protestants, mind you; but this serves to point out that their "thinking" is similar to those of the Muslim "far right". And I now consider myself a "Protestant"; having grown up Roman Catholic and fed up with their hypocrisy, I left the Church years ago in "protest".
The argument that the Left loathes the principals of its founders is also a spurious one. On the contrary, it is most often the Left which will speak out when these very principals embodied in our Constitution are being eroded. Say what you will about the ACLU; I'm sure you think it to be an odious organization. But...they are committed to protecting the constutional rights of everyone, Left or Right. And while the cases they take on may not be popular, their paramount mission is protecting these very rights for all, even those on the extreme ends of the political spectrum. The Right, not the Left as you contend is often the first to try to "limit speech and debate that does not correspond to their own belief system, in the pursuit of restrictions on religious expression, circumvention of the law and rougish political discourse".
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