I want to start today talking about patriotism.
We've seen some of the worst aspects of the sort of George W. Bush neo con Republicans
exacerbated or blown up under the Trump in America in which we live.
And patriotism is definitely at the top of that list.
And if you've been following politics, American politics, for any length of time, you know
that Republicans for a long time have tried to co-opt the term patriotism for their own
gain.
And not only have they sought to define patriotism, they've specifically done it in a way to try
to monopolize patriotism in American society, where the Republicans are patriotic and Democrats
and socialists and everybody else is not.
But this has gotten even worse during the era of Donald Trump.
And you might remember back when George W. Bush was president, Republicans tried to weaponize
the idea of patriotism, to say, you know, if you don't support the troops in Iraq, you're
not patriotic.
And of course, people like me who opposed sending troops to Iraq, we opposed it because
it was misguided as a response to Saudis attacking us on 9/11.
It didn't make any sense.
And so when we opposed going into Iraq, it was because we support the troops and we want
our country to do the right things.
We didn't want to send troops into harm's way for a misguided and politically motivated
military engagement based on then flimsy.
And after the fact, we knew a completely bogus so-called intelligence, but we were called
unpatriotic as a result of that cut to the Trump era.
We are now seeing something very similar.
But because Donald Trump's followers, just like on average, Trump's followers, seem even
less informed and less intelligent than those of George W. Bush, if that can be believed.
It's working in an even more insidious way.
So remember, patriotism is devotion to one's country, whereas nationalism is more about
focusing support on the interests of one's country, even at the exclusion or to the detriment
of other countries.
Right.
So patriotism versus nationalism, there is a difference and there's overlap when we talk
about patriotism.
We're really talking about.
Devotion and attachment to one's country and an alliance with our fellow citizens.
We're not talking when we say patriotism of blind loyalty to the president or blind loyalty
to the military or the president or the military or our leaders actions.
And that's how the trumpets are trying to define patriotism for their benefit.
If you look at the data on the virus and you come to the only sane and logical conclusion,
which is, wow, we have failed miserably on the virus where most other countries have
done better than we have, we have failed.
They will say that's unpatriotic.
Noticing that is unpatriotic.
What we're doing is recognizing we can do better.
Wanting to do better.
There is nothing unpatriotic about that.
And you can't don't allow them to frame it that way.
They want you to believe that wanting your country to do better and believing it could
have done better is unpatriotic.
That's laughable.
And we can't allow them to do that.
That's what they want to convince you of.
And when you step back, the way in which patriotism or attacks of lack of patriotism are weaponized
by Trump, fists fit this description in a number of ways.
Look at the wall as an example when it comes to the wall.
They want to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
They insist it's patriotic to do so.
Why?
We are allowed to question that?
Why is it patriotic?
Most people coming to the United States illegally are not crossing the physical border.
They're overstaying visas.
The wall can be defeated.
It's outrageously expensive.
It won't improve relationships with other countries to sort of deal with the immigration
issue at its core.
So why is it unpatriotic to question the wall?
It's not.
But they use that assertion to shut down debate.
They want you to believe maybe it is unpatriotic to question the wall so that you shut your
mouth.
It's essentially an ad hominem.
They will make it the debt.
We've talked about this one before.
Oh, debt.
Oh, it's terrible.
When a Democratic president is in the Oval Office.
Debt is an issue of patriotism.
And then when a president takes over who's a Republican and explodes the debt like Bush
did, like Trump has debt doesn't matter anymore.
It's no longer an issue of patriotism.
The right loves to say that when we on the left say that's racist.
They say, you can't talk about that.
You should feel bad that you called someone a racist.
They make finding racism the problem in order to stifle debate.
And they're using the term patriotism in the exact same way.
They say you're being unpatriotic.
That's un-American.
And they do it to make the conversation about whether you are a patriot rather than evaluating
the criticism.
Have we done well on Corona virus or haven't we?
We look at the numbers.
We figure it out.
It's unpatriotic.
You're not standing by the country because you're not standing by the president.
Well, the president failed.
Nothing unpatriotic about that.
So here's my warning to you.
We need to treat allegations about lack of patriotism the same way we should treat allegations
of Trump derangement syndrome.
I told you this last week.
There is these catchphrases and tools that they have developed to actually shut down
debate.
And they claim they're about debate.
They don't want to suppress speech, they claim, but they use these terms.
You're unpatriotic.
That's Trump derangement syndrome to shame and ridicule anybody who wants to make a critique.
It's very popular on Twitter now.
You make any criticism of Donald Trump.
The reactions will be you have TADS Trump, you have TADS Trump Derangement Syndrome.
Orange man bad.
Can't you do anything other than Orange Man bad?
This is the idea that you are blinded by hatred of Trump where you can't logically critique
him and then they just ignore the critique.
They don't actually think about what you're saying because you have Trump derangement
syndrome.
Don't allow them to stifle the debate with these questions when they say that's unpatriotic.
Say what is unpatriotic about it?
Well, you're not standing by the president.
Patriotism is about what's best for the country and our fellow citizens.
It is not about blind loyalty to whoever happens to occupy the Oval Office for four or eight
years and just remit.
By the way, there's always hypocrisy.
When Obama was president and Trump was starting to dabble more and more in politics.
Trump spent years criticizing Obama and now they want to say, criticizing the president,
that's unpatriotic.
So don't fall for it.
Patriotism is wanting what's best for your country and the people in the country.
It is not blind loyalty to Trump.
It's not blind loyalty to the military or to any president.
That's more how cults work.
And that's increasingly what the Trump administration and the Trump.
In Mitchell, you actually represents not liberal democracies.
So don't fall for it