Patriotism Again
By JAMES TARANTO
July 1, 2008
Four years ago we wrote an essay for The Wall Street Journal titled "The Democrats' Patriotism Problem1," in which we noted that Democrats "are awfully defensive about their patriotism." We singled out John Kerry, Max Cleland and Michael Dukakis as Democratic politicians whose "whining about imagined attacks on patriotism" had proved (or would prove, in the case of Kerry) an unproductive political tactic.
Yesterday, on the eve of Canada Day, Barack Obama2 gave a speech on patriotism that seems in some ways to fit the pattern:
At certain times over the last 16 months, I have found, for the first time, my patriotism challenged--at times as a result of my own carelessness, more often as a result of the desire by some to score political points and raise fears about who I am and what I stand for.
So let me say at this at outset of my remarks. I will never question the patriotism of others in this campaign. And I will not stand idly by when I hear others question mine.
It's hard to suppress a chuckle at Obama's promise never to question John McCain's patriotism, as if that would get him anywhere. Yet while Obama's prickliness about his own patriotism sounds familiar, there are some differences this time around.
One is that Obama actually has had his patriotism questioned, albeit not by John McCain or even Hillary Clinton--or, as far as we know, by people working for them or any other of his political opponents. Rather, the questions have come from individual cranks, their voices amplified by the power of a certain world-wide computer network that Al Gore took the initiative in creating. One could argue this point either way, but we tend to think Obama made a mistake by responding to these rumors, thereby elevating them.
At the same time, Obama arguably has good reason to feel defensive. In our 2004 essay, we asked, "Why do Democrats feel so vulnerable on the issue of patriotism?":
This question takes us back to the 1960s and, yes, Vietnam. That war, which a Democratic president escalated, split the party, costing it the presidency in 1968. By 1972 the countercultural left was firmly established as a part of the Democratic coalition--and it remains so. A significant and vocal minority of the party, that is, believes that America is imperialistic, racist, militaristic, oppressive, etc. These views aren't necessarily unpatriotic; it is possible to love one's country and also be a harsh critic of it. But if dissent can be patriotic, assent is far less complicatedly so.
In his speech yesterday, Obama echoed the point (though using his standard pox-on-both-your-houses rhetorical device):
What is striking about today's patriotism debate is the degree to which it remains rooted in the culture wars of the 1960s--in arguments that go back 40 years or more. In the early years of the civil rights movement and opposition to the Vietnam War, defenders of the status quo often accused anybody who questioned the wisdom of government policies of being unpatriotic. Meanwhile, some of those in the so-called counterculture of the '60s reacted not merely by criticizing particular government policies, but by attacking the symbols, and in extreme cases, the very idea, of America itself--by burning flags; by blaming America for all that was wrong with the world; and perhaps most tragically, by failing to honor those veterans coming home from Vietnam, something that remains a national shame to this day.
The problem for Obama is that he is a child of the counterculture to a greater extent than any past presidential nominee has been. Bill Clinton flirted with it a bit, but had long since "sold out," if you'll forgive the '60s argot, by the time he arrived on the national stage. John Kerry was more deeply immersed, as a leader in a radical anti-Vietnam group--but years before he ran for president, he reinvented himself (albeit implausibly) as a war hero.
By contrast, until a few weeks ago, Obama belonged to a church whose pastor blamed America for all that was wrong with the world. He made his political home in Hyde Park, Chicago, where unrepentant Weather Underground terrorists are regarded as upstanding civic leaders. And he seems to have absorbed the counterculture's complicated view of patriotism and disdain for those for whom it is a simpler emotion, as evidenced by his response3 to a question last year about why he didn't wear an American flag lapel pin:
The truth is that right after 9/11 I had a pin. Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we're talking about the Iraq war, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security.
I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest. Instead, I'm going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testament to my patriotism.
Commentary's Abe Greenwald4 notes another peculiarity. In his speech yesterday, Obama credited his mother with helping inspire his love of America:
I remember, when living for four years in Indonesia as a child, listening to my mother reading me the first lines of the Declaration of Independence--"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." I remember her explaining how this declaration applied to every American, black and white and brown alike; how those words, and words of the United States Constitution, protected us from the injustices that we witnessed other people suffering during those years abroad. That's my idea of America.
But in his first autobiography, "Dreams From My Father," Obama describes his mom as having a considerably more cynical view of her native land:
She had always encouraged my rapid acculturation in Indonesia. . . . She had taught me to disdain the blend of ignorance and arrogance that too often characterized Americans abroad. But she now had learned . . . the chasm that separated the life chances of an American from those of an Indonesian. She knew which side of the divide she wanted her child to be on. I was an American, she decided, and my true life lay elsewhere.
Patriotism ultimately is not a matter of policy, or even of symbols or actions, but of feeling. The sense one gets from Obama is not that he isn't patriotic, but that his feelings about America are complicated. But when expressing feelings, simpler usually is better. Saying "I love you" in three words is many times more powerful than saying it in 3,000.
The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations5
"A British high school student received credit for writing nothing but a two-word obscenity on an exam paper because the phrase expressed meaning and was spelled correctly," the Associated Press reports from London:
The Times newspaper on Monday quoted examiner Peter Buckroyd as saying he gave the student--who wrote an expletive starting with f, followed by the word "off"--two points out of a possible 27 for the English paper.
"It would be wicked to give it zero because it does show some very basic skills we are looking for, like conveying some meaning and some spelling," Buckroyd was quoted as saying.
"It's better than someone that doesn't write anything at all."
Buckroyd said the student would have received a higher mark if the phrase had been punctuated.
Standards are even lower at the Democratic Leadership Council, reports Angry Left blogger Markos Moulitsas6:
There I was, in the lion's den, calling Joe Lieberman an a--h---.
And people applauded and cheered.
I'm not sure what that means, but I got the DLC to applaud me calling Lieberman an a--h---. That means something.
He probably would've gotten a standing ovation if the phrase had been punctuated.
Accountability Journalism7
The Associated Press brings us some good news from Baghdad:
Militants killed fewer U.S. and NATO troops in Iraq in June than in Afghanistan for the second straight month, an encouraging milestone capping a run of headline-grabbing coalition victories that analysts say underscore the Iraqi insurgency's diminishing strength.
Whoops, sorry! That's not how the AP wrote it. It's actually a dispatch from Kabul, and it is bad news:
Militants killed more U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan in June than in Iraq for the second straight month, a grim milestone capping a run of headline-grabbing insurgent attacks that analysts say underscore the Taliban's growing strength.
We're not saying our spin is better than the AP's, but why not just report the facts? Is it really necessary to "spin" at all?
Mortarboarding the Terrorists8
"The director of the FBI is not happy with the Supreme Court's recent handgun ruling," the Associated Press reports from Hartford, Conn.:
Robert Mueller said he tends to believe that "weapons harm people, and more often than not they harm the people carrying them." . . .
Mueller spoke Monday at a convention of the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators in Hartford, Conn.
He said with his grandchildren going to college, he hopes "those campuses will be weapons-free."
He said college campuses and small communities could be "potential incubators of terrorism" even while major cities such as New York and Los Angeles remain primary targets for terrorists.
If the FBI thinks college campuses are "potential incubators of terrorism," maybe it ought to be investigating the curriculum.
William Was a Homosexual Deceiver9
The guys at People for the American Way, a left-liberal group best known for its smear campaigns against Republican judicial nominees, catch the conservative American Family Association in a funny error. It seems the AFA subscribes to Associated Press stories, but its computer automatically changes certain words to fit AFA style. That is how there appeared an AP story that began:
Tyson Homosexual easily won his semifinal for the 100 meters at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials and seemed to save something for the final later Saturday.
As you might have guessed, the athlete's real name is Tyson Gay. It's reminiscent of when Jesse Jackson announced that black Americans would thenceforth be known as "African-Americans," and liberal newspapers dutifully fell into line. There followed a spate of stories about companies being "back in the African-American" and "African-American South Africans."
What makes the AFA's blooper even sillier is that the group seems to have accepted that gay and homosexual are synonyms, so that nonsexual uses of gay--as an adjective as well as a proper noun--are rendered nonsensical (the homosexual '90s; we'll have a homosexual old time).
What is more, even if you accept the AFA's moralistic view of homosexuality, there is a useful distinction to be drawn between gay and homosexual. The latter refers to sexual desire, which presumably even those at the AFA would acknowledge has an involuntary element. The former refers to identity. Not all homosexuals are gay; the latter implies acceptance of one's sexual desires.
Presumably someone who believes homosexual activity is wrong would think it praiseworthy for a homosexual not to become gay. But the AFA's use of language leaves no way of making that distinction.
'This Court Enjoins Arar to Speak Up'10
"U.S. Federal Court Rules It Can't Hear Arar's Complaint"--headline, CBC.ca, June 30
Stay Away From Highway Dedication Honors11
"Highway Dedication Honors Killed MDOT Workers"--headline, Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, Miss.), June 30
Never Believe a Cloud Promise12
"Weather Risks Cloud Promise of Biofuel"--headline, New York Times, July 1
Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control
• "Man Charged for Possessing Puffer Fish Toxin"--headline, Chicago Sun-Times13, July 1
• "Canary in a Tux? Penguin Woes Signal Sea Problems"--headline, Associated Press14, July 1
• "Millions of Bees From Overturned Truck 'Get Nasty' as They're Moved"--headline, CBC.ca15, June 30
• "Goat's Leg Found in El Segundo Street"--headline, Daily Breeze16 (Torrance, Calif.), June 30
• "Camels, Zebras, Llamas and Swine Escape From Dutch Circus With Giraffe's Help"--headline, FoxNews.com17, July 1
• "Drunken Swede Tries to Row Home From Denmark"--headline, Reuters18, June 30
They Didn't Poll Drunken Swedes19
"Denmark World's Happiest Country, Survey Finds"--headline, Reuters, July 1
Breaking News From 196920
"Russia Finally Loses Space Race to USA"--headline, Pravda July 1
News You Can Use
• "Study: Sioux Falls, S.D., Safest U.S. Driving City"--headline, Associated Press21, July 1
• "What It's Like to Be a Bat: Vocal Sonar Does More Than Locate Objects; It Cues Memory and Assists Flight"--headline, National Science Foundation22 press release, June 28
• "Kentucky: It's Not Just Horses and Bourbon--but There Sure Are a Lot of Both"--headline, Chicago Tribune23, July 1
Bottom Stories of the Day
• "Political Play: McCain Recalls Loss on 'Jeopardy' "--headline, Associated Press24, June 30
• "Supreme Court Rulings Won't End Lawsuits"--headline, Associated Press25, June 28
• "Heath Ledger's Hometown to Name Theater After Him"--headline, Associated Press26, July 1
• "Archaeological Sites in South Iraq Have Not Been Looted, Say Experts"--headline, Art Newspaper27, July 1
Adult Swim28
"Two people caught skinny dipping in a Portland [Ore.] reservoir that is a main source of water for the city nearly caused officials to dump millions of gallons of water and close the facility," the Associated Press reports:
But the two were swimming in a section of the reservoir that was not being used. Had that section been in use, water bureau officials say they would have had to dump millions of gallons of water from that pool and possibly shut off the reservoir.
That was a close call, but let this be a lesson: If you ever go swimming in a reservoir, make sure you wear a suit so that the water remains pure. |
