Conservative Blog B.S. (Part 2)

A week or so ago I wrote the first post in what I have a feeling will be a long, intermittent series on some of the most outrageous, pure b.s. out there on many conservative blogs. Now don’t get me wrong, everyone’s entitled to their opinions and frankly, I’m not the sensitive type who gets all upset when I see conservatives spouting reasonable arguments even if I don’t agree with them. Heck I don’t even sweat it when they call all liberals loony, moon bats etc., because when you have to resort to name calling, well then you probably don’t have any rationale arguments for your point of view and you demean yourself, not me. I’m writing this series to address one specific type of conservative b.s., and that’s the statements made and repeated constantly that are designed to sound like logical fact, when they are anything but logical or factual.

The b.s. I want to address today is the idea and various statements that assert that, “liberals don’t love this country”, “liberals aren’t patriotic” etc. These comments are some of the most asinine, presumptuous, narrow-minded thoughts ever to spew from Americans mouths. I mean are there really people out there who are so ignorant that they don’t realize just how many Democrats and liberals have served and died for this country? Do they honestly believe that only Republicans/Conservatives serve and sacrifice for America on an every day basis, or do they know better and simply like to ordain themselves the only, “true Americans”, so they can feel justified in their opinions and actions no matter how skewed they may be?

The decision to go to war in Iraq is a great example of how this rationalizing works. Most reasonable people would at this point say that invading Iraq was a mistake, but for some hard core neocons rather than admit to this and look for a new path they’d rather point at liberals who voice concern over the war and say, “you just hate America and want the terrorists to win”. By pointing their fingers at the people who have enough guts to stand up and speak out when they feel their country is headed down the wrong path, and yelling “unpatriotic” at all dissenters, they allow themselves to continue to cling to simple ideals without ever having to think. It’s a heck of a lot easier to say or think, “well I love my country so I must follow my President no matter what”, or “I love America, so it must always be in the right”, then it is to actually take a look at what your President and country is doing and ask yourself, “why are we doing that, and is it in Americas best interest? Is it the right/moral action to take”? Asking those difficult questions and voicing your dissent when you can’t answer yes to them is what America and democracy is all about and in my opinion is a hell of a lot more patriotic than simply draping yourself in the flag and following along blindly no matter where you’re lead. For those of you who disagree give this some thought, if simply following your leaders and not ever voicing dissent is the standard you set for patriotism than German citizens during the Nazi reign should be your role models because they were excellent "patriots".