Sarah Palin’s
statement about enjoying her tour of the patriotic parts of
America, Representative Bachmann’s demand for an investigation
of un-American activities, and the Bush Administration’s stand
that you are either with us or you are with the terrorists naturally
remind us all of the McCarthy investigations and the Salem witch
hunts. They are all a cause for concern.
Properly
defined, however, there is some scope for defending Palin’s
political gaffe. Naturally everyone from evangelicals to environmentalists
sees themselves as being "pro-American" in some sense.
In that we are all trying to do, or hoping for what is best
for America whether that is cleaning up the moral sewers or
the actual sewers.
So how
should "American" be defined?
Well there
are a bunch of people who support Barack Obama. These people
he affectionately calls "folks." The people that support
John McCain are referred to as "friends" by the Republican
candidate. The truth is that if the term has any real meaning
then neither of these groups has a monopoly on the term American.
In fact, if we could generalize, then neither would be called
real Americans. Real Americans are neither "friends,"
nor just plain "folks."
Folks are
usually neo-liberals and democratic socialists. They either
have no clue about the role of the Constitution, private property,
sound money, and free markets, or they just see them as impediments
to their fairy book vision of the future. Friends are neo-conservatives
and fascists who might talk a good game about the concepts above,
but when push comes to shove, the foundation concepts of America
are shoved aside in pursuit of empire, greatness, and imposition
of "morality."
Foes understand
private property, sound money and free markets and their roles
as the foundation for society. They believe that government
should be strictly limited, that it is inherently evil, and
that the rights of the individual should always be superior
to the rights of government.
Foes are
intellectually and ideologically opposed to both friend and
folk. They know that the policies of both groups are impractical
and the cause of all chronic social ills. Beyond the practical,
they see both groups and their ideologies as unethical and immoral.
You see,
there is a distinction to be made here. The meaning of America
must be something other that what we want to make of it. No
one believes, for example, that America would be America if
we turned it into an Islamic state or Israel, or modeled it
in the image of a communist dictatorship like Cuba or North
Korea.
Therefore,
we know that America is about freedom, sure, but there must
be something more to it that does not involve "freedom
to take over the world" and "freedom to control other
peoples’ lives." The meaning of America is, simply put,
freedom of individuals to their lives and what they wish to
make of themselves. Every other consideration in society should
be structured around that point.
The
original foes, our founding fathers, understood this and sought
to piece together an intellectual and ideological superstructure
that would uphold this meaning of America. Then, after exhausting
every peaceful and non-violent means of achieving a resolution,
they went out and beat the world’s leading military and economic
power. Patriotism is when you fight for their meaning of America,
that is, fight for other peoples’ rights to self determination.
It is not just putting on a uniform, wearing a lapel pin, or
paying your taxes.
In
terms of blue states and red states, we need not worry about
picking a color for foe states at this time because I’m not
sure if any would qualify. In fact, with the correct definition
of American, Sarah Palin’s tour of patriotic American states
would not have taken her to the lower 48, but out into the wilderness
of her home state.
The good
news is that everyone is invited to joins the foes. You don’t
have to change a thing except your politics. You can still live
green, sustainable, and leave no carbon footprint or you can
save as many sinners as you want, the old-fashioned way (i.e.
without the help of government), and you can pray the Bible
every day. It is never too late to become an American patriot
either. Like our founding fathers we are faced with the menacing
specter of the world’s leading military and economic power on
American soil and it must be defeated.
