If This Is Patriotism, We Should All Be Anti-American
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The “patriotism card” is pulled more and more these days. It’s used as a tool to make people feel guilty for doing the right thing. A child might say to her mother: “If you don’t buy me this toy, it means you don’t love me!” Most mothers will not fall for that. But many Americans fall for it when other children, our politicians, say that it is un-American or unpatriotic to do things that are in fact…patriotic.
This week in an interview, one child, Joe Biden, said that “it’s time [for the rich] to be patriotic….time to jump in…time to be part of the deal…time to get America out of the rut.” Many people in fact do believe that the rich need to pitch in and help us innocent workers who are in this rut – a rut which was created by Biden and other government officials by their policies of printing money, spending more than they can steal from citizens, and by many other ways that they destroy our wealth and bring on economic crises. It is a rut which was created because we voted yet again for the same bad policies of the last 100 years.
The “rich” are in fact the ones who pay most of the total taxes paid. And most of our taxes do not go towards roads, bridges, and schools – most taxes go directly into the pockets of other people, the poor and middle class. The rich are the ones Biden wants to steal more from in order to “return” the funds to the middle class. The rich provide most of our capital – our farms, factories, tools, equipment, trucks, etc. – everything that enable us to create goods and services. They also pay our salaries. They also finance our homes, cars, and all the other things we buy but can’t afford. Just because they own their own wealth (for now) doesn’t mean we don’t use it and benefit from it. We do!
But Biden says the wealthy are using too much of their money to provide us with goods and jobs. They should instead turn their assets into cash and give it to us to consume. Thus, according to Biden, it’s unpatriotic to provide the things which improve our lives. Conversely, it’s patriotic to squander all our wealth.
Keep in mind, when the rich pony up even more of their wealth to hand out to us, it’s done by government force. If the rich refuse to let us steal their money, the government will come to their homes with guns and handcuffs (on our behalf). This, according to Biden, is patriotism. If we do not steal our fellow citizens’ wealth, we are unpatriotic. Naturally, one who is at risk of having more and more of their property taken simply because other’s want it, is not a free person. They are at risk of having their wealth confiscated at will by the government (thanks to your vote), or else have their freedom of movement taken from them once they arrive in prison for not paying up. Yet we always speak of having freedom in this country, and we call that patriotism. Plus, socialists, primarily Democrats, but also many Republicans, who espouse wealth redistribution daily in the name of “equality,” are ones who claim to be ones with morals who care about their fellow citizens.
But life goes on in America whereby we claim to be a free country full of patriots. And it is not only theft which occurs in the name of patriotism, but also death, destruction, and general impoverishment arising from wars, dictatorships, and outright communism. Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, and Zedong, all justified their terror, crimes, and repression in the name of one or another form of nationalism (patriotism + 1 more step forward). Clearly, there were other incentives, such as attempted equality, attempts to gain back lost territories, etc., but all the policies carried out by these monsters were said to be in the name of national pride. Today Bush and our other politicians wage wars in the Middle East (as usual) in the name of keeping America free (as usual). Propaganda promoting their military aggression is always presented with the American flag waving (remember “Mission Accomplished?”). Now, anyone who makes any type of television appearance, including NCAA referees, must wear a pin or patch with an American flag, to show that they are patriotic and that they support our little boys killing people abroad for no reason (and of course all our “enemies” wave their flags equally to reveal that they are the ones who are patriotic and moral).
If this is all what we call patriotism, I want no part of it. I’m not sure I comprehend what patriotism actually is, but I know what it should not be. It should not be a system where we support theft, economic decline, and killing of others because they want to kill us because we want to kill them because they want to kill us because we knocked over their government or stole their land.
Let’s ditch the patriotism and freedom charades and start to think in terms of real freedom and truly doing the right thing. Let’s let people live as they choose unless they do real physical harm to us or our property. Let’s free the rich and free the “enemies.” We will be better off economically and will live more safely.
Kel Kelly @ September 19, 2008