Sailing the C

Communism. 

I know there's a 'snarl word' of the month for the current political party and they get rotated in and out as needed to stir up the ever-faithful/fearful target audience and keep the donations rolling in. If I read the news correctly this morning, communists are an existential threat that we didn't hear much about until just now. 

So let's start with what it really is: "...a political and economic ideology that aims to eliminate private property and social classes. Instead, the community or the state owns all resources and means of production. Wealth is divided among citizens based on individual need...'From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs'" Britannica

The fashionable definition of Communism these days however is "Everything I don't like is communist." It doesn't even have to resemble the actual system. I would paraphrase the quote by Barry Taylor who said, "God (Communism) is the name of the blanket we throw over the mystery to give it shape." 

If it can't be explained any other way or it's just too much work to actually know what you're talking about, it's got to be communism. If someone doesn't really understand someone else with a differing viewpoint, they must be a communist.

 I've had a couple of swipes come my way and all I could think of is the old Charlie Daniels lyrics from 'Uneasy Rider':

"Well he's a friend of them long-haired hippie type pinko fags

I betcha he's even got a Commie flag

Tacked up on the wall inside of his garage"

Do they really think that? It would give me a chuckle if it wasn't so stunningly wrong. And just lazy. 

 

If anyone was to ask I'd say that there's way more to it than a label you can stick on at random. I actually suspect that when a war isn't going well, the economy is embarrassing, midterms smell like losing, lies are only fooling the foolish and irony threw itself on it's own sword in frustration a month ago...you've got to move on to the next national emergency to keep the patriotic spirit up. 

Enter Communism.

Nothing moves the base like a grand old national emergency. We've had a lot of them of late. Particularly whenever there really isn't one. But this time it's like the crowd at The Great American State Fair...sparse, overheated, walking on previously well-trod ground and invisible to almost everyone outside the Beltway or the algorithm. 
It has a sibling in socialism which gets tossed around with nearly as much abandon but for now let's go with the big 'C'.

It creeps into discussions about pretty much anything or anyone these days. Slowly but surely, everything has become a commie threat ala Republican Senator Joe McCarthy and the Red Scare of the 40's and early 50's. 

Most of us know how that turned out. It destroyed pretty much everything it touched and cost the Republicans dearly. It led to the 1950 "Declaration of Conscience" speech by Margaret Chase Smith(R-Maine) in which she made it clear what real 'witch hunting' would do:

"Surely these are sufficient reasons to make it clear to the American people that it is time for a change and that a Republican victory is necessary to the security of this country....Yet to displace it (the Democratic administration at the time) with a Republican regime embracing a philosophy that lacks political integrity or intellectual honesty would prove equally disastrous to this nation. The nation sorely needs a Republican victory. But I don't want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny - Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry and Smear.

I doubt if the Republican Party could - simply because I don't believe the American people will uphold any political party that puts political exploitation above national interest."

                                          

Then the journalist and war correspondent Edward R. Murrow said of McCarthy, "His primary achievement has been in confusing the public mind, as between the internal and the external threats of Communism. We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and the conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of the other. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men - not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular."

                                     

In the end, McCarthy was censured by the Senate, disgraced in the press and died at 48 an alcoholic and addicted to morphine. His zeal became a punch line and what could have been a valuable contribution to his country got lost in power, hatred and decidedly un-American activities. 

His story is one the current Republican administration could learn much from. I know we in the electorate could stand to learn something as well. When you look at everyone and everything through a preconceived lens and seek to use what you see as a weapon, you will eventually find exactly what you're looking for in yourself...and you won't like what that weapon turns into. 

It pays to keep in mind, "And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." Nietzsche

If communism is the threat, maybe it would pay to really gaze into that abyss and see exactly where it's coming from. McCarthy never did to the high cost of his party, his country and his life.

Hopefully we will not follow that disaster with a new one of our own. 

I'll stick with the illustrious Mr. Clemens who said, "History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes."

We might play the same songs, but the rhymes can change.

Considering 250

It's the big birthday month for our experiment in non-royalty, sorta by-the-people governance here in the USA.

Having watched and read hours of commentary about what I should think about it all, I've reached a conclusion:

I'm an unapologetic patriot for my country. Nobody gets to tell me I'm not. I think I'm that way at heart without being either all Norman Rockwell or Holy Crusader about it. It's not a boast, it's just how it is.

It isn't splashy or newsworthy but it sure is rooted well. I grew up on it.

And despite all the negativity and partisanship that floods the news cycle every couple hours, I still very much trust that the dream is not dead yet. It's a mess right now for sure but hell, so was I for a long time. With work, perseverance and luck, things got better. If it works for one, maybe it'll work for all. I still think we have a chance. 

The short version of it is simply I love living here. Always have. This is home and I'm a homebody. To me, patriotism is like homeownership, personal relationships and simple practicality all stuffed in one. Things that are worth working on.

Worth working on because I've been told many times of late by self-proclaimed patriots to "Love it or leave it" if I don't agree with the outrage du jour. But that isn't patriotic at all, it's just lazy. It ignores the work. It's a meaningless argument that's equivalent to burning your house down because it needs painting. Going back to my analogy, if my house has leaky pipes or drafty windows, I work at fixing what's broken. I don't move across town because I found a mouse nest or the furnace quits. That's part of the gig. 

Same thing with relationships. Only an idiot gives up on a good friendship or marriage or partnership on a whim because you had a bad day or even run of bad days. You screw up, you own up, you fix up. It takes work, patience, acceptance and willingness to see someone else's point of view...and maybe just possibly change your own.

And in practical terms, what kind of lunacy would suggest that the patriotic thing to do is abandon everything that works because some of it doesn't? Throw the whole thing out because it isn't doing what we want right now? Love it or leave it is like abandoning your car because a warning light came on. Especially when you still have loan installments to make. See where I'm going here? We still have a lot of stubs in the payment book.

Being patriotic means more than flying flags on your pickup, cheering whoever's in charge at the moment, wearing the correct swag, saying the accepted things, disliking the out-of-favor of the day or cheering for the loss of anyone. It's harder than forwarding a meme, insulting anyone who disagrees and calling names. It's not being happy all day about your country. It's being worried too. Sometimes very much so.

It's work. It's knowing that things are not all great and never were. Hating doesn't follow knowing as some would have us believe. Understanding what was gives context to what is. If teaching our unwashed history makes people feel badly, then we're doing it badly. I understand our country has done some horrible things but that doesn't mean I love it less and it shouldn't for anyone. Sweeping away everything that's ever been wrong diminishes all that's ever been good. Someone like me who loves their country should hate wrongs that were done in her name in the past but also believe she can do better in the future. One doesn't exclude the other. That means learning, thinking and yes, working.

You don't become unpatriotic because you admit we have a lot of very tragic and evil events in our history. The bad doesn't outweigh...only counterbalances the truly wonderful things we've done. And we have done some wonderful things. 

In the end, in thinking of the Semi quincentennial (which I still struggle to say without a lisp), I've re-upped my subscription to E Pluribus Unum and holding these truths to be self evident. I'm not really interested in making America great again, I'm all about making her greater still. We all should take pride not in 'again' but 'ahead'.  

I may not be able to do much in the grand sweep of things but it's worth a try.

Because what is a patriot if not as Webster says, "...a person who loves their country and is ready to boldly support and defend it." 

Sign me up.