I wrote a letter to Mark Morford, the SF Gate Morning Fix writer, and he responded, sort of.
Mark, I love your column, I really do. But I want you to remember, occasionally, that patriotism isn’t the same thing as miniature flags on SUV’s. Patriotism can be a beautiful, wonderful thing, and if you reject patriotism because of the scoundrels who take refuge in it, then you lose, in a lot of ways, a cultural battle that is very important to win: the battle against the myth that liberals hate America. What I’m saying is, don’t recall patriotism: recall jingoism. I know that’s what you meant, but please be clearer! Think of all the good things about this country: freedom and organic food and voting and newspapers and having a job so you can feed your family. Believing what you want to believe. Public parks and and free education and teenagers making out in back seats without being beaten to death for violating public morals. The US isn’t perfect, no country is, but please don’t pretend that those who love it are all idiots– you love it too, you need to admit this, and if you’d get outside of it once in awhile and see what the rest of the world is like, you’d realize just how good you’ve got it. A lot of the left has abandoned patriotism and the American flag because they think it all means international empire and so forth. But the US does some good stuff too– international aid, the peace corps, Radio Free Wherever. Don’t give up on your country– you take too much for granted sometimes.
His response, as usual without the initial letter, was published in today’s newsletter. I’m not sure he got my point, but then again, his column is supposed to be totally off-balance, and my request for balance, if heeded, would totally ruin it.
— To verbal: Well this is the entire point, isn’t it? That thoseaccused of hating their country and of being traitors for calling Bush a dangerous small-minded warmongering idiot lo these past months tend to be, in fact, the most patriotic of all, and not just for celebrating their freedom of speech and questioning the direction of the nation, but for defending for what this country actually stands for, which is peace and nonaggression and the idea that we do not attack crappy little defenseless non-threatening countries just to further the desires of the president’s petrochemical cronies. Believe you me, I believe in patriotism. I understand it well. And hardcore lockstep GOP war hawks who want dissent silenced and want to wiretap your email have proven to be the least patriotic of all.
Secretly Ironic 