During the height of the Iraq war, it wasn’t uncommon for certain politicians to protest with indignation any questioning of their patriotism. Of course, no one had questioned their patriotism; these politicians were simply erecting straw men in order to preempt or deflect criticism of their positions on the war.
Some might have said at the time that the lady did protest too much, methinks, but that wouldn’t have been quite right: These politicians were, indeed, superpatriots. Current events prove it.
Consider some of the statements from prominent politicians and their acolytes in the elite media regarding recent controversies — the Ground Zero mosque, the Arizona illegal-immigration law, the financial-reform bill, the California marriage referendum, Obamacare, Afghanistan, and the administration’s Gulf drilling moratorium. Their commentary suggests (if the polling on these issues is reasonably accurate) that approximately 70 percent of Americans are racist, xenophobic, greedy, homophobic, uncaring, and stupid religious bigots, and bloodthirsty, polluting imperialists to boot.
It’s hard to imagine how anyone other than a superpatriot could love a country dominated by such utterly despicable human beings. Nor is it easy to imagine how anyone other than a superpatriot could be proud of a country whose culture, values, and system of governance encourage such repulsive majorities to thrive.