Joel Stein: Liberals don’t love America the way conservatives do
The only shocking thing about this column is that a liberal was actually willing to say this out loud:
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.”
This doesn’t mean I’m not fascinated by American history, impressed by our Constitution or don’t appreciate our optimism and entrepreneurial spirit. In fact, I love everything Hannity listed on his TV special other than Madonna. But there are plenty of things I don’t like about America: our foreign policy, our religious fundamentalism, our provincialism, our intellectual laziness, our acceptance of sweat suits in public.
When I ran the idea that liberals don’t love America as much as conservatives by talk-show host Glenn Beck, who will move from CNN Headline News to Fox News next month, he totally agreed with me, which is precisely why I called him. “It’s absolutely true, deep love. As a parent loves a child,” he said. “But I think liberals laugh that off, the way the rest of the country laughs off the love Texans have for their state. Texans don’t think, ‘Oklahoma, you suck.’ Well, yes they do — but they don’t think other states suck. They just have a love for the republic of Texas. I don’t have disdain for other countries. Well, except for France.”
I asked Beck why Democrats rarely share his overwhelming sense of American exceptionalism and Francophobia. “I think it’s because in the late 1800s up until the 1930s, the progressive movement started to think the European ideals are pretty good, that it’s one big world,” he said. “Well, it’s not. If you look at all the countries like people, there are differences between people. And I happen to like this person the best.” When I look at the countries like people, I love Sweden the best.
I accused Beck of loving America just out of birthplace convenience, which is kind of like loving the girl who happens to sit in front of you in homeroom. “If I were born in Great Britain and read about Britain and America, I’d love the values and principles and the men who founded this country,” he said. “I love that we crossed these mountains and didn’t know what was on the other side. I love that the Pilgrims didn’t want to come here, but they came here because they felt prompted to by God. There’s always been a spirit of adventure and awe in this land. And I don’t think any other country has that.” Beck, it seemed, loves America the same way little boys love camping.
… I wish I felt such certainty. Sure, it makes life less interesting and nuanced, and absolute conviction can lead to dangerous extremism, but I suspect it makes people happier. I’ll never experience the joy of Hannity-level patriotism. I’m the type who always wonders if some other idea or place or system is better and I’m missing out. And, as I figured out shortly after meeting my wife, that is no way to love.
What really struck me most isn’t the admission that liberals don’t really love the United States the way we conservatives do — that we already knew, after all — but the willingness to say so openly in the Los Angeles Times. (Of course, this is the columnist who wrote that he doesn’t support the troops.) Liberals stammer, screech, and sputter with outrage if you ever, ever question their patriotism. But time and time again they give us reasons to, from blaming the United States for 9-11, to not supporting our troops, to sympathizing with our enemies, and idolizing men who exemplify everything that is anti-American, like Castro, Stalin, and liberals favorite hero, Che Guevara.
And yeah, I understand the point of the column. It’s a criticism. We’re “blinded” by love to the point where we don’t even see America’s flaws. But that’s not quite true. I see them, as do many conservatives. But unlike liberals, that’s not all I see. I look at America and love her for everything she is, both the good and the bad. I look at my country, and despite the mistakes we have made and inevitably will continue to make, still know that this is the freest, best country on the face of the Earth, know that anyone from anywhere in the world can come here and build a good life for themselves if they’re only willing to work hard and play by the rules, that America will always stand for freedom and justice and democracy.
Liberals look at America, and have a hard time feeling the love and patriotism that conservatives feel because they can’t get get past the flaws. They can’t love America unless she is perfect. Conservatives, however, don’t require perfection to know that America is, indeed, a special, blessed place. It doesn’t mean that the rest of the world is a terrible, terrible place. It doesn’t mean that no one can possibly have a great life anywhere else. However, despite what many Little League coaches and PC teachers may believe, not every runner can finish the race in first, and while the rest of the world may be great, it’s just not the USA.
Hat Tip: Hot Air Headlines
Cross-posted from Cassy’s blog.
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Posted by Cassy Fiano on December 26, 2008 2:14 pm
» Filed Under Conservatism, News, Patriotism, liberalism
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14 Responses to “Joel Stein: Liberals don’t love America the way conservatives do”
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Right wingers are super-duper patriots, that’s why they want Obama to fail and destroy America in the process.
Jerks.
That article almost made me feel sorry for liberals except that they choose to feel that way.
David, please site one example of a conservative who wants Obama to fail? You can’t because conservatives love their country more than they love their party.
David,please research the Logan Act and numerous high profile Democratsfrom Reid,” the war is lost …” Pelosi visiting Syria and her pronouncements, Murtha’s call to arms against the Marines at Hiditha and Obama’s refusal to back the Surgeconjoined with the New York Times printing claassified documents placing our troops in danger…ad nauseum do you not wonder why Republicans in general might be prickly.To claim we are “jerks” in this context is wrong.
Wanting Obama to fail and predicting that he will fail are different things. I am well educated and quite capable. If I prepare to perform your open heart surgery, a smart person might predict I would fail since I didn’t study cardiology or surgery. You gave Obama the scalpel. I’m just the smart guy in the room saying “Hey! That guy isn’t a physician!”
I don’t think that any human being entirely subscribes to an ideology, and so I am hesitant to generalize about “liberals” from “liberalism”. But with that proviso, I’ll say that anybody who did subscribe to liberalism would not love anything, because liberalism is reductively materialistic, and creatures who are just stuff do not have anything to love with. Nor can materialism describe any actual entity corresponding to a country that one can love. The embarrassment of “liberals” about acknowledging love of a country, community, or family is a symptom of the fact that according to their ideology “love” is an illusion. Of course, they think that the “love” of conservatives is just as much of an illusion, and that is why liberals resent the accusation that they “love” their “country” less than conservatives do. They think that everybody loves alike: zero. For liberalism “countries” are just names for sites on the planet that creatures like horses, hippos, and humans inhabit. For “liberals” the U.S. or Sweden could be perfect if they could feel about them exactly as otters feel about their stream. They only expect it to satisfy their physical needs, which liberals and otters agree are the only real needs there are. This is not a putdown on otters: they “love” their homes just as much as liberals do, and in just the same way. We should all be so wise: according to liberalism, that is.
David is a typical liberal anti American bedwetting moonbat who spews hatred about 50% of America then hopes no one calls him on it.
Of course in there are some people who want the Marxist Hussein to fail in his desire to destroy America, and there are others that just hate him for what he did to Hillary, but that isn’t what Davy was insinuating was it?
If Hussein forsakes the anti-American tendencies he embraced to get the left wing to nominate him, I have a feeling that it won’t be conservatives who want him to fail it will be far left commies like Davy.
Liberals tend to look at the US as nothing more than the sum of its pathologies.
I tend to look for the good in people, and in America. Liberals are always looking for the bad so they can point it out.
Liberals [edited] on America day after day and are surprised that we notice. They say they want to change the flaws in America. They see America as Quasimoto, Conservatives see America as…well….Miss America.
Liberals see America’s riches and our goodness and charity as not enough. They’d rather we were like the nations that CANNOT provide charity because of their Quasimoto like flaws. In general liberals are SPOILED [edited]-HATS who don’t have a clue how good they have it. And most liberals are completely dependent on Government for their income or employment.
I feel that the Liberals are looking at the Emperor’s new clothes and saying how wonderful they are. Such wonderful color combinations, etc.
Conservatives are like the little boy saying “the emperor has no clothes on.”
you could substitute ‘experience”, “qualifications” and a few other such statements in regards to our next prez.
I don’t want Obama to fail. I know he will fail. I just want it to happen faster so we can fix this nation and defeat Reid and Pelosi in 2010.
Liberals need to remember John McCain’s comment from a few months ago:
“I don’t wish my opponent luck, but I do wish him well.”
I, for one, don’t wish Obama “luck,” because he doesn’t deserve it: he’s been “lucky” his entire life although he’ll never admit it.
I do wish Obama “well,” because if he fails (especially in foreign policy), we’ll all be going down with the “S.S. Obamatanic.”
But then that begs the question: Why can’t we have a perfect America? Why can’t we both love America and see it’s flaws, and try to actually fix them and then learn from them so we don’t make the same ones again? I pose the question, WHY can America not one day be perfect? Why must there be flaws? Why must we let there be flaws? Maybe I’m too naive, but I think that if we were able to combine liberalism and conservatism then we’d have the perfect country. They both have good ideas, but separately they cause more problems then they fix.
P.S. Dennis D: Can I borrow your crystal ball?