Of Bellicosity and Patriotism

I can take the Republican crowd in Dayton on Friday chanting the name of their candidate enthusiastically (00:00 of C-SPAN video).

JOHN    MC    CAIN
JOHN    MC    CAIN
JOHN    MC    CAIN

But I find it uncanny when the same crowd slips into a chant about the United States, eliding one three-syllable chant into another, the candidate into the country (23:00).

U    S    A
U    S    A
U    S    A

The aggressive tone is no different than the one many Americans use at the Olympics, a tone they consider harmless, because they don’t suffer from any concerns about the public image of the Loud American overseas. Only this wasn’t abroad, so there was no need to assert the supposed physical superiority of Americans in such a confrontational way, unless I were to interpret the chanting as support for John McCain’s bellicose foreign policy rhetoric, which it was (21:48).

I couldn’t also help but feel that it was aimed at Democrats, who these people don’t see as real Americans.

U    S    A
U    S    A
U    S    A

John McCain stood there and beamed, as if acknowledging his and his supporters’ open secret: only Republicans love their country. Of course, that statement is only true if patriotism equals bellicosity. But it doesn’t. McCain would be a better man if he would acknowledge the following statement by Barack Obama. But he won’t.

. . . Let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a red America or a blue America – they have served the United States of America.

So I’ve got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first.

It takes a true patriot to acknowledge the humanity in and ideals of one’s political opponent.