The real patriotism
Liberals are frequently criticized by rightwingers for their supposed lack of patriotism, which is defined by them as support for President Bush's Iraq debacle. Lest we forget what real patriotism is all about, here are some words on the subject from Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt in an address one day before Armistice Day (today known as Veterans Day) on Nov. 10, 1929. FDR was speaking at the annual "massing of the colors" ceremony at the (Episcopal) Church of the Heavenly Rest at 5th Avenue and E. 90th Street in New York City. Here is how the New York Times reported his remarks:
"Tomorrow at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month we celebrate the 11th anniversary of the ending of the greatest war in history. Today we are here to witness a beautiful and solemn ceremony, a ceremony which is not only beautiful as a spectacle but which is also a physical visualization of patriotism in its highest spiritual sense.
"As one by one the standards of your organizations move forward to group themselves around our country's flag, they bear with them a renewed vow of true patriotism from every member of each body they represent.
"There is, I fear, too great a tendency to give to patriotism mostly an interest in making our country unconquerable--a feeling that our chief aim is to see that our army and our navy are sufficient for our protection. That is but a part of our patriotic duty.
"Our country is, in a sense, continually at war. Against the ramparts of liberty, equality, and justice, on which our Republic is founded, surge constantly the evil forces of greed, of materialism, of selfishness, headed by those who cynically deny that there is any prosperity or goodness that cannot be expressed in dollars and cents, or happiness except as bank balances.
"Continually they seek to sap, to undermine, to destroy finally those high ideals without which our nation can no more survive than could those great nations of the past--those nations whose bodies died because their souls were dead.
"It is your duty as good soldiers of the faith not merely to keep alive the memory of those who gave their lives for their country's safety, but to fight militantly, tirelessly, against the moral enemies of our great Republic wherever and whenever they appear. Your flags have rallied around your country's banner. Make that no empty symbol. Move forward in your banner's path and underneath this, our country's symbol, consecrate yourself to defend not only your nation's boundaries, but your nation's soul, lest freedom and justice, equality and liberty, should perish from the earth."
The speech came about a month after the great stock market crash of October 1929. Roosevelt, of course, went on to become President of the United States from 1933-1945. He was the pre-eminent liberal of the 20th century, and when he talks about "the moral enemies of the Republic" he is not talking about immigrants, or gays, or evolutionists, or any of the other ginned-up "enemies" of our rightwing era. He is pointing the finger at the greedy rich who hold down the mass of Americans. Or in modern terms, the people from Texas and elsewhere whose wealth and power put George W. Bush in the White House to tear down Roosevelt's glorious legacy.