Index

Shame

The Fascists Stole Our Patriotism

When I was growing up, we thought that Memorial Day was in remembrance of the soldiers that died fighting for the United States in The World Wars and (maybe, sorta) Korea. We were proud to be Americans and proud of those that gave their lives for this country and the things it stood for. We learned in school about the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Laws, and the legal system that brought those laws down to the rest of us. We gloried in our technological triumphs - science and engineering were the things that made our future. We went to the Moon.

Then came the Vietnam mess, and we saw the first cracks appearing in those illusions. Our soldiers suddenly weren’t junior-grade saints fighting for the greater glory of the country. They were the guys next door, with all of their weaknesses. We couldn’t face them when they came back because we knew they had been murdering people. They were still our neighbors, but they had become killers. We lost enough faith in government that we started watching it a lot closer. Nixon and his idiotic thievery added to the damage.

Then came Reagan, and the lies started gushing out. He and the fascists backing him started blaming “the government” for everything. They wanted people to lose faith in government, and it kinda worked. A minority of the citizenry, big and loud enough to pass as “people” if you didn’t count too carefully, bought these lies and the pseudo-economic bullshit that came with them. The intelligent people knew they were lying, but enough bought the lies to become a dangerous voting block.

We have so far survived the orange toddler that infested the Whitehouse. Since “the government” is to blame for all of their problems, the pseudo-reasoning goes, we should destroy the government. That is what they set out to do. This illness, this orange cult that came in determined to destroy our democracy, has turned the entire concept of patriotism on its head and called destroying the government “patriotism.” Anybody who believes in democracy and the rule of law is now “unpatriotic.”

Mind you, this group calls forcing women to carry their pregnancies - even if it kills them - “pro-life.” If the children succeed in being born, they are on their own. “Pro-life” stops at birth - they no longer care. Their hijacking of “patriot” is hardly the first lie they have told. These same loons took Ivermectin and talked about shooting up bleach in response to the orange toddler’s lies. The same vaccines that saved their parents and grandparents from the scourge of polio are suddenly “experimental” and “government intrusion.” Of course, “My Body, My Choice” for the anti-vaxxer doesn’t mean that women have the same rights.

But the fact that they have hijacked “patriot” and all of its derivative words just leaves me ashamed to use those words. I think of a patriot as someone standing up for this country, its Constitution, laws, and government. I know I am old and out of date, but I just want to puke every time I hear some fright-wing lunatic referring to traitors like Tucker Carlson as “true patriots” - they are nothing of the sort. I can’t stand and wave the flag proudly anymore because it has become a symbol of lies and inhuman cruelty in the hands of the fascists.

On this Memorial Day, my thoughts are for those killed by racist terrorism and the fascists’ refusal to deal with gun violence. My thoughts are for the women whose rights and lives are being stolen by the anti-woman American Taliban. I am thinking about those whose insulin has been priced out of reach, dooming them to a slow, painful death on the altar of pharmaceutical profit. I am thinking about those doomed to “death by disaster” by the carbon industries’ control over our government. These are things that the fascists are directly responsible for.

I am not waving an American flag this Memorial Day because the symbol has been hijacked by anti-American liars and thieves. I am more likely to be waving a rainbow flag for those whose rights are next on the fright-wing’s chopping block. I would rather wave a “Black Lives Matter” banner for those being killed and harassed every day for the crime of being black. At least those are not lies told by fascists for their own purposes.