The last refuge of a scoundrel

That's what Samuel Johnson famously said of patriotism, referring not to the concept in general but to what he saw as its abuse, specifically by William Pitt. A good part of political discourse is really squabbling over the meaning of abstract nouns, such as patriotism and liberty. If one defines patriotism as, say, uncritical admiration of every policy of the current leadership, or all of the important political and social regimes in the nation's past; and then proclaim that only "patriots" are worthy of respect, you have eliminated any possibility of discussion.

Of course, you don't really believe that, you just won't stand for criticism of some policies or events in the nation's past, while you freely criticize others. Opposition to the U.S. war in Vietnam was called unpatriotic by many. A popular slogan at the time was "America: love it or leave it," implying that if you were opposed to the Vietnam war you must not "love America" and therefore you should not be here. As I reported here recently, after I attended the Juneteenth observance on our town green a kid ran after me and yelled "This is America! If you don't like it you can leave." So celebrating the end of slavery and protesting against racism today means I don't belong in the United States?

That is evidently what Resident Dump believes, judging from the political campaign speech he gave last night at taxpayer expense. However, there is a deeper irony here (not a strong enough word). Apparently it is patriotic to defend the display of monuments to treason in defense of slavery, and unpatriotic to want them removed from the public square. To characterize traitors as patriotic is obviously to destroy the very meaning of the word. Now a patriot is whatever you declare to be a patriot, even if they are in rebellion against the legitimate government or commit crimes against humanity.

The people who are peacefully protesting -- and yes, the protests are overwhelmingly peaceful -- are patriots. They love the country enough to have the courage to make it better. The next few months are the most critical in our history since the Civil War. The levers of power have been seized by a profoundly evil cabal, which must be eradicated, pulled out by the roots. That's the meaning of the word radical -- change at the root. It must happen.

And I give you true patriot and war hero Tammy Duckworth. At least she'll never have to worry about bone spurs.

P.S. I don't know why I bother but as I have said at least twice, I do not understand why I am supposed to care that founders of the Black Lives Matter organization label themselves Marxists. Marxism is not to be confused or conflated with Soviet or Maoist style Communism, which emerged decades after his death and which would have appalled him. Karl Marx had many -- too many -- ideas, some of them better than others, some of them more applicable to his own time than to ours. I don't personally want to label myself by any kind of "ism," except maybe humanism, but that's a very general concept. But if some people find inspiration in Marx's thought, that's fine by me. And again, only a tiny fraction of the people who are protesting or using the Black Lives Matter slogan actually belong to the organization, or even particularly know anything about it. So please stop pestering me with this crap.