Questioning patriotism

Patriotism. The free online dictionary defines “Patriotic” as “Feeling, expressing, or inspired by love for one’s country.” It’s a word we use a lot, especially this time of year.

This is also an election season. And during elections, candidates love to talk about patriotism — how patriotic they are, and how they are being attacked for their patriotism.

While I’ve seen candidates attacked for doing “unpatriotic” things, I’ve noticed that complaints about being attacked far outweigh actual attacks. I’ve also noticed that candidates who complain about being
called unpatriotic often attack their opponent’s patriotism in the process — which seems a bit ironic to me.

But a lot of times attacks are mischaracterized. For example, supporters of Senator Barack Obama spent the week attacking Senator John McCain about his military service. General Wesley Clark
said “I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.” Randy Beers said McCain’s “national security experience” was “sadly limited” because he was a prisoner
of war.

Earlier this year, Senator Rockefeller claimed McCain “dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet” without considering the people below; while Senator Harkins said McCain’s lifetime of military
service was “pretty dangerous.” But these smears didn’t really question McCain’s patriotism, except maybe Rockefeller’s.

On the other hand, attacking Obama for not wearing a flag pin indirectly questioned his patriotism, since being proud to display the flag is generally thought of as a form of patriotism. Frankly, not every
candidate wears a pin, so I don’t see what the big deal was.

Last year, when Obama stopped wearing a pin, he was asked about it. His response was an example of attacking patriotism, as he explained that wearing a flag pin “became a substitute for, I think, true
patriotism” — implying others who sported pins had a false patriotism. So he said “I decided I won’t wear that pin on my chest.”

Senator Obama sought to quell criticism of his patriotism this week, by giving a speech about it. He wore a flag pin, but I don’t think that means he was lacking true patriotism.

Obama rightly noted that “the question of who is — or is not — a patriot all too often poisons our political debate.” We need to debate issues and discuss actions and statements made by the
candidates. And while I expect that Obama, as president, would seriously damage this country, I have no reason to doubt him when he says “I have always taken my deep and abiding love for this country
as a given.”

The notion that a person would run for president in order to do harm to the country is absurd. The last eight years we’ve endured elected Democrats claiming President Bush did exactly that (for example,
last year Representative Stark said on the House floor that our children were sent to Iraq to “get their heads blown off for the president’s amusement”). I think Americans have grown weary of such
baseless attacks.

I know there are Americans who hate this country. But I have trouble believing someone would endure the hardships of running for the presidency if they didn’t care about the country and want to make a
difference, to make things better. They may be incapable of rising to that challenge, and have ideas that would do harm rather than good. But I’d like to think that our candidates have good, if misguided,
intentions.

So, I will challenge Senator Obama on issues of importance to me — a disastrous energy policy, the undermining of our economy, pseudo-environmentalism which makes our lives worse while doing little
to make the world better, the defense of our country from terrorists, the life of the unborn, liberty, and freedom. But I won’t question his patriotism.

Last week, Time magazine published articles from Obama and McCain on patriotism. I’ll close with excerpts from Senator McCain: “Patriotism is a love and a duty, a love of country expressed in good
citizenship. … Patriotism is countless acts of love, kindness and courage that have no witness or heraldry and are especially commendable because they are unrecorded. … The patriot honors the
duties, the loyalties, the inspirations and the habits of mind that bind us together as Americans. … Patriotism is another way of saying service to a cause greater than self-interest.”

Charles Reichley has been a Prince William County resident since 1981. He can be reached at critically thinking@msn.com.