THE PATRIOTISM OF THE LEFT

It's not surprising -- though disgusting -- that maniac radio talk ghost Michael Savage would say (I heard him this afternoon) that liberals wish that the 2,000 Americans killed in Iraq were 200,000. But even if unsurprising, it's the kind of remark I often hear on wingnut radio that makes my blood boil. How dare the supporters, nay the perpetrators, of this outrageous, immoral and indefensible war of choice that has killed 2,000 of our military accuse us, who are aligned with what is now a sizable majority of Americans in calling this ill-conceived BushCo adventurism a "mistake," of desiring the deaths of hundreds of thousands of our fellow Americans simply to make the point that it was, indeed, a mistake?

Yes, Michael Savage is well-named (it's a self-designated pseudonym that is particularly appropos), but his sentiments are echoed throughout the more "respectable" conservative media. Mark Levin says, "It's what they [liberals] do." Greg Knapp and Darrell Ankarlo say, in effect, that liberals/Democrats secretly despise minorities, the poor, and our military and wish ill for them all. Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly persist in asserting that the ACLU is out to destroy America and that we progressives hate our native country and would like to see it fall. Laura Ingraham, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin and Bill Bennett insist that we have no ideas and thus have no recourse except to ad hominem attacks mere instants before they resort to the tactics they ascribe to us.

(As a professional woman, mother of five and wife of 30 years, I find it particularly interesting and nauseating to think that millions of our citizens worship the moralistic utterances of Ingraham, Coulter and Malkin -- three women who have never borne a child, two of whom are unmarried -- about "family values" issues. Clearly, none of these privileged three have ever wrestled with the domestic problems of ordinary women and have no credibility in discussing or pontificating about such.)

But my real sorrow and ire is reserved for those who question, nay disparage, the patriotism and devotion to country of those Americans, like me, who were raised on civics classes that taught Constitutional ideals and still cling to those. I am an American. I am the scion of a proud military family. I am a BAPTIST, for goodness' sake, my husband and I moved to Texas so he could attend the most conservative Baptist theological SEMINARY in the country! Two of my nephews have served in this misbegotten war in Iraq, and my own daughter enlisted in the Air Force post-9/11 so SHE could go (only to be discharged medically before she could finish basic training). Don't tell ME I wish for more American deaths so I can blame George W. Bush.

The irrational right-wing hatred of moderate Democrat Bill Clinton should have informed us long ago that wingnuts were the logical inheritors of the Ku Klux Klan, no matter how they attempt to disguise it. The "Southern strategy" that has been so successful for the Republican Party is clear evidence that there is a large population segment that resembles too closely for comfort the German American Bund. The tragedy is that, just as pre-WWII, there are also a great many reasonable and non-racist Americans who believe that BushCo and the Republican Party represent some kind of tradition of fiscal responsibility and conservative values that, though accompanied by questionable foreign adventurism, can be trusted more than the propaganda they have swallowed regarding the Democratic "soak-the-rich-tax-and-spend-liberal" agenda. It's bewildering to me that otherwise intelligent people can disregard the evidence that the economy prospers better under Democratic leadership, despite the fact (or perhaps because????) that we support a living wage for working people, a shared tax burden, a prosperous middle class and initiatives that enable all those who are ambitious enough to move into it, and shared sacrifice in times of national crisis.

And it's completely inexplicable that so-called Christians cannot see the lesson of Sodom and Gomorrah for what it is -- not a judgment of God upon the sexual morality of the cities as is so often cited, but upon their neglect of the poor and strangers/hospitality (44And the Lord was provoked at this and at all the works of the cities of Sodom, for they had abundance of food, and had tranquility amongst them, and still would not sustain the poor and the needy, and in those days their evil doings and sins became great before the Lord. 45 And the Lord sent for two of the angels that had come to Abraham's house, to destroy Sodom and its cities. Ezekiel 16:49 Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. 16:50 And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw [good]. )

Which, I ask, is the party that aligns itself with that which the Bible tells us is paramount with God, and which is not?