Friday, December 26, 2008

Liberals Don’t Love America (So Says Stein)

Here’s an entire column premised on complete ignorance of conservatism, but it has some funny parts.

I don’t love America. That’s what conservatives are always telling liberals like me. Their love, they insist, is truer, deeper and more complete. Then liberals, like all people who are accused of not loving something, stammer, get defensive and try to have sex with America even though America will then accuse us of wanting it for its body and not its soul. When America gets like that, there’s no winning.

But I’ve come to believe conservatives are right. They do love America more. Sure, we liberals claim that our love is deeper because we seek to improve the United States by pointing out its flaws. But calling your wife fat isn’t love. True love is the blind belief that your child is the smartest, cutest, most charming person in the world, one you would gladly die for. I’m more in “like” with my country.

[...]

Conservatives feel personally blessed to have been born in the only country worth living in. I, on the other hand, just feel lucky to have grown up in a wealthy democracy. If it had been Australia, Britain, Ireland, Canada, Italy, Spain, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Japan, Israel or one of those Scandinavian countries with more relaxed attitudes toward sex, that would have been fine with me too.

When a Democrat loses the presidential race, real lefties talk a lot about moving to Canada. When Republicans lose, they don’t do that. Though, to be fair, they don’t have a lot of nearby conservative options. Not even Hannity is a committed enough conservative to yell, “If Obama wins, I’m moving to Singapore.”

rolleyes

Hat tip Wizbang.

(4) Comments
Posted by Owen at 1348 hrs
Culture + Politics + Politics - General

  1. It’s a great column.  Spot on.

    Posted by scott on December 26, 2008 at 1725 hrs


  2. It’s spot on, only because conservatives have adopted the U.S. as a cause just as liberals have adopted blacks or women - i.e., to boil it down, “don’t agree with me, then you hate {insert object here}”.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 26, 2008 at 2103 hrs


  3. What makes this a typical liberal view is that he does not see any difference between the United States and “other wealthy democracies”. That’s probably because liberals have spent the past 50 years closing the gap between our society, which is based on individual freedom (and entrepreneurship), and the “social” democracies (top-down control) in the other countries he mentions.

    And, after the Next New Deal is enacted, there may be no real difference left…

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 27, 2008 at 0022 hrs


  4. It’s not that liberals don’t love America, or even that they love America less than conservatives. The difference is between unconditional love for America (felt by conservatives) and tough love (felt by liberals). It’s precisely the inverse of the kind of love each group feels for the disadvantaged in our society.

    Wisconsinites should be able to understand that, since most of us have at least a few alcoholic relatives. Both kinds of love have their pros and cons (and family adherents). It may drive you crazy when your mother bails your brother out of jail for the third time, or infuriate you when your father insists on letting him sit there and face the consequences of his OWI, but that doesn’t mean one of your parents loves him less or is necessarily a terrible person.

    Posted by Ordinary Jill on December 28, 2008 at 1727 hrs


Commenting is not available in this channel entry.