Love it or leave it

I'm about to say something that I really hoped didn't need to be said anymore, but apparently it still does.

You can hate your country's government, but still love your country.

I bring this up because of all the attention the following tweets have gotten lately.

Most of the outrage over these tweets has focused on how racists they are ( which they certainly are ), but I don't think enough attention has been given to how Trump is trying to say that anyone who opposes him is un-American.

If this is not obvious from the tweets above, Trump's defense of these tweets in the video below ( check the 41-second mark of the video below ) should clarify things further.



The Trump quote I'd like to focus on is the following:

"These are people that in my opinion hate our country."

The only proof he offers that "these people" hate the country are "all of the statements they've made".

Well, if you look at the comments "Progressive Democrat Congresswoman" have made ( be it progressive congresswoman in general or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Talib in particular ), you don't see anything that indicates they hate the USA.  Instead you see comments that indicate that these progressive congresswoman oppose President Trump's policies, Republican policies, and many mainstream Democratic policies.  While some of their stances may not win them a lot of friends on Capitol Hill, their positions are not un-American.  Being a patriotic American does not mean supporting the status quo.  If the Founding Fathers has been content to maintain that status quo, our nation would not even exist.  If abolitionists has been content with the status quo, tens of millions would still be enslaved.

Back in the days of of McCarthyism in the 50's, McCarthy supporter Walter Winchell popularized the saying "America: Love it or Leave it".  The saying gained even more traction in the 1960's in response to those who opposed the Vietnam War.

I'm sure that those who were alive in the 60s still remember what "love it or leave it" meant back then.  Those who said "love it or leave it" to Vietnam War protestors were telling them that opposing the US government's policy of military intervention in southeast Asia was the equivalent of not supporting the USA, and if somebody was not supporting the USA, they should leave the country.

I'd had hoped the intervening 50 years would have changed some minds about the idea that opposing the government in unpatriotic.  After all, in the decades that followed the 60's most American's came to believe that the Vietnam War was a mistake.  The Watergate scandal should have taught Americans that it is unwise the blindly trust the government, and several other government "-gate" scandals since then should have reinforced that.

However, now we find ourselves 50 years after the Vietnam era with a US President who is pushing the idea that dissent in unpatriotic.

Well, if I could could speak to Donald Trump, I would tell him the following ...

"Mr. President, I love my country, but you are not my country.  Supporting you is not an example of of patriotism, and neither was support of President Obama, President Bush, President Clinton, President Reagan, or any other president.  Patriotism is putting the needs of your country ahead of your own needs.  For example, if a patriot found that a foreign government was trying to meddle with our election system, a true patriot would try to stop that from happening rather than accepting help from this foreign government for his own political gain.  A true patriot would not to obstruct an investigation of foreign meddling in our election system in order to protect his political power.  And of course it goes without saying that a patriot would not use the power of the presidency to enrich himself, but doing things like - I don't know - staying at his private club for much of his presidency, so that the club's members would be fine with a 100% increase in the membership fees in exchange for influence, and charging the Secret Service exorbitant fees to stay there.  Of course as President, I'm sure you'd like all patriotic people to stay in this country, and as you were so clear in saying, you would encourage the unpatriotic people to leave.  We'll here's hoping you get exactly what you want in this case."

Rich