Betsy's Page

Rarely do I send you over and over and over to someone's blog, but today I am doing it. Betsy Newmark, whose Blog I read daily, has three of the best posts she's ever done all on one day. Betsy, you're on an awesome roll! Rock on!

Here she talks about liberal discomfort with patriotism. She quotes Natalie Maine's comment that I referenced here before:

Last month, Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks told a British newspaper that she just didn't get the whole deal about patriotism.

"The entire country may disagree with me, but I don't understand the necessity for patriotism," Maines resumes, through gritted teeth. "Why do you have to be a patriot? About what? This land is our land? Why? You can like where you live and like your life, but as for loving the whole country… I don't see why people care about patriotism."

Many Americans and most conservatives find her remarks incomprehensible. But the question of patriotism seems to be a sore spot among liberals. You don't find conservatives worrying about whether they come across as patriotic or not. But we know that Democratic politicians are very sensitive to being pigeonholed as being less patriotic since any time that a Democrat is criticized, they immediately start whining that the Republican is impugning their patriotism.

Lorie cautions liberals who are concerned about a show of patriotism being interpreted as support for Bush to just lighten up. As she says, and I bet most conservatives would agree, Republicans had no trouble flying the flag or displaying patriotism during Clinton's presidency. We didn't worry that, if we showed the flag, people would think that was an endorsement of Bill Clinton.

True, no?

Here she talks about liberal discomfort with the Constitution's founders.

Kurlansky may be sick of the Founders and not give a whoop-dee-doo about the nation they created, but the rest of us can be glad that our nation had the most amazing collection of brilliant and brave men back in the 18th century to create a country based on the revolutionary idea that we are equal and all entitled to rights that no one could take away from us. Other countries had philosophers who wrote about such ideas, but only we had people who actually created such a country. And our country's history is the story of how we've been working since then to live up to the ideals at the foundation of our nation.

As if to prove the accuracy of what I wrote yesterday, Kurlansky can't see beyond the sins of our country's past to see that it was those very founding principles that contained the promise of what our can become. All he can see are the warts. And with such a wizened view of life, he'll never be able to appreciate what makes this country the one that so many people from all over the world want to come here instead of the other way around. What a sour and pinched way of looking at the world.

Here she talks about liberal discomfort with the flag.


In general, doesn't seem that liberals are uncomfortable a lot? I would like to note that most Democrats aren't the naked bike riding types. They care for the country and don't mind their American flags proudly flown. That is why the term "liberal" is more accurate. Sometimes I worry that my Democratic friends and family might believe that I paint with a broad brush. I don't. Don't you worry, dear Democrat friends, that such basic American notions are reviled by those at the extreme in your party?