Am I "Anti-American"?
February 26, 2002
by Joe Sobran
Liberals used to accuse me of being an extremist
radical right-wing superpatriotic cold warrior. I didn't
exactly enjoy having these labels slapped on me,
particularly by Mom, but at least I could understand why
some people used them. They were a caricature, which is
an exaggeration of real features.
Lately, though, I've been called some unflattering
names by people I used to think of as my fellow
conservatives. One, a radio talk-show host, has gone so
far as to call me "anti-American."
How did I go from being superpatriotic to being
anti-American, or even, as some have called me,
"treasonous"? I haven't joined the Taliban, endorsed
terrorism, waged war against the United States, taken
bribes from foreign governments, or sold sensitive
military secrets to Chinese or Russian spies. Wherein,
then, have I offended?
That's easy. I haven't joined in the spirit of
primitive patriotism that is expected of us in wartime.
In fact I deny that such patriotism deserves to be
honored as patriotism.
Discerning anthropologists have enumerated traits by
which certain social types may be recognized. You've seen
the lists: "You may be a redneck if ..."
In the same way, I think there are traits by which
we can identify an anti-American.
If, for example, you think the U.S. Government
should abide by the Constitution even during wartime, you
are anti-American. If you think the government should at
least declare war before waging it, you are anti-
American. If you deprecate a war that hurts and kills
innocent people without achieving its stated goals, you
are anti-American.
That's not all. If you judge your own country's
government by the same standards that you apply to other
countries' governments, you are anti-American. If you
think America is not immune to the sins that have often
afflicted other countries, you are anti-American. If you
think our government has made us enemies we don't need,
you are anti-American.
If you think that even America's "good wars" -- the
Civil War and World War II -- had terribly tragic results
for this country and the world, you are anti-American.
America is an extension of Western civilization, one
of whose deepest principles is rationality. The Founders
of the American Republic established standards, embodied
in the Constitution and explained in THE FEDERALIST
PAPERS, by which that Republic and its rulers should be
judged. They didn't expect automatic submission to the
government; on the contrary, they set down the grounds on
which citizens should criticize the government and, if
necessary, remove its officers. A true patriot would be a
critic, not a serf, of the government.
This whole approach was in deliberate contrast to
the principles of absolute monarchism. A loyal American
could judge his government wanting, because the people,
not their rulers, were sovereign. They would have no
sacred ruler set over them in the name of God and
claiming divine authority.
But this original sense of measure has been lost. To
judge your government by its own supposed criteria -- the
specific and limited powers named in the Constitution
which our officials are sworn to uphold -- is disloyalty
and treason. Obey, or be damned!
This reversion to primitive authoritarianism would
have shocked the authors of the Constitution. But they
are more alien to today's "patriotism" than the Taliban.
Today they would be considered anti-American.
Those men assumed that the Constitution would be a
constant rein on the Federal Government. It would be used
to rebuke any attempted usurpation of power; and for a
while, it was. But in times of war especially, the
Constitution has proved a frail instrument. During the
Civil War, as Paul Craig Roberts recently put it, Abraham
Lincoln "exalted the Union above the Constitution."
Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt went much further
than Lincoln. All three are now honored as "great
presidents." Those who respected constitutional
limitations are said to have been "weak presidents." And
George W. Bush is already being praised, in some
"conservative" quarters, as a "great president."
The question of constitutionality rarely comes up,
except in the feeble and marginal whimpers of pseudo-
constitutionalists such as the American Civil Liberties
Union, which actually favors socialist-style government
in most respects. No president has ever been removed for
exceeding his powers. President Bush doesn't even have to
worry about that.
So if you consider the ruin of a noble experiment in
limited government "Americanism," just set me down as
anti-American.
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