You've heard the jingoists chant, "My country, right or wrong." You've heard the hawkish, "America is worth dying for!" or some such bromide: "God, guts and guns make America great." Of course in most cases such chants and slogans are exaggerations or oversimplifications of patriotic sentiment. If necessary, one could easily whittle down any patriotic statement to its nub, its core: "America (in this case) is the greatest nation on earth."
Such patriotic zeal and fervor is greeted by leftists with, at best, a tittering behind cupped hands, with whispered quips about the silliness, quaintness or provincialism of such American civil piety. But typically leftists are not so casual about such jingoism, as they see it, particularly in difficult political times. At peacetime, yes, leftists seem less appalled by love of country. But when times turn tough, leftists often strike a counterblow to the belly of American pride, often pointing out America's shortcomings; its failings, blemishes and imperfections. Red-state patriots are deemed unpatriotically blind to America's torrid past in nefarious world affairs; perceived as victims of faulty discernment before waves of propaganda. Blue-state progressives do all they can to point out this alleged blindness.
In short it could all be summed up something like this: To those on the right, America is great even when wrong; to the left, America is only great when it is always right.
But I have discovered a subtle contradiction in the left's view of America, and it can only be seen in its condemnation of the War on Terror and its criticisms of the Katrina disaster. For everyone knows, at least those of us paying attention, that the patriotic zeal that runs strong through many military personnel and families in support of the Iraq War (for example), is rebuffed by leftists who like to point out that America is immorally participating in an illegal war; that America is not perfect, but tyrannical; that George W. Bush is the world's greatest terrorist; that the CIA created Osama bin Laden (it didn't, by the way); that America's foreign policy is replete with allegiances to dictators who cater to American Big Business interests–all of these are deployed by leftists in their assault at perceived American nobility, superiority or decency. Leftists live to tell of America's faults, deeming themselves patriotic for pointing out those faults, expecting that doing so shall make America "the great nation it should be."
But here's the contradiction, found hidden in this rhetorical question: How is it that the greatest nation on earth can have failed its citizens so miserably in New Orleans? It is also hidden in the plaintive, "How is it that the greatest nation on earth can have people starving to death on rooftops?"
Now, I am not suggesting that people on the right are not asking these same questions. I am suggesting that perhaps only the people on the right are entitled to ask such questions. For you see, the left has already distanced itself from taking the high-road here, as it historically has never believed America to be great in actuality but only in potentiality. The right, despite all its alleged jingoism and fervor, has really always believed America to be faulty. But the right has loved America despite its faults, recognizing its worth in its imperfections: My country, right or wrong.
Sadly, as I said above, the leftist mantra has pretty much only been, "My country too–but only when right."
Hence, the left, because it has never perceived America as great, is disingenuous when it cries from the rooftops that the greatest nation in the history of the world should not have left citizens suffering in the Superdome in New Orleans. For if the left means what it is saying–that America is the greatest nation on earth–then it opens itself to criticism about its views on America in general. Is America worth defending in Iraq, Afghanistan, Serbia or North Korea? Is America really the world's greatest terrorist? Is there any "noble" reason for which an American soldier might die? Is America really all about oil? (And if so, how is it that it could have failed to protect the Gulf Coast's oil-processing infrastructure if oil is all that America cares about?)
And since the left has never perceived America as the greatest nation on earth, we must hear its cries of indignation concerning New Orleans and the Gulf Coast as so much gnashing of teeth, so much anti-patriotic manipulation. For if the leftists do not really believe America is the greatest country, why are they saying it? Perhaps they mean it this way, with a slap to the face of the American right: "If America is so 'great', why are people dead in New Orleans?" If that is the way they mean it, then one might conclude that they are exploiters par excellence; looters of storehouses of patriotic love and spirit.
In other words, the left is either taking advantage of the tragedy unfolding before us, or it is renouncing its earlier positions about America's failures the world over. Either America IS the greatest nation on earth, or it is not. Which is it going to be?
In closing, those of us on the right have never expected America to be perfect in anything it does. Whether it be dealing with civil or international problems, America has not been held by the right to some sort of moral perfection (maybe the religious right has so held it, to some degree, but I mostly doubt that, since the religious right believes that humans are sinners.) It is the leftists who are doing so, particularly in the War on Terror and the war on natural and manmade disasters. And that sets right and left apart, eternally, really.
This is what I believe finally separates the left from the right, and you can take it as you will: the left cannot accept paradox, whereas the right can. But the left accepts contradictions, whereas the right cannot.
(Or maybe, if I feel generous today, the left and right merely disagree on what are acceptable paradoxes. But I tend to doubt it.)
Contratimes
©Bill Gnade 2005/Contratimes - All Rights Reserved.
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