Liberals-The Real Patriots

by Eric Futterman

Are you patriotic? Prove it.

 I’ll bet there are many people who would look at you and render an opinion based on the most superficial of credentials.  For example…

Among the top July 4^th headlines this year was the release of a study that stated what so many people in the United States believe is obvious. Republicans are more likely to participate in Independence Day parades and children who participate in those parades are more likely to become Republican. 

 This study by Harvard researchers follows the conventional wisdom that Republicans are more patriotic than Democrats. 

It is certainly true that Conservatives wrap themselves in the red, white and blue more often than Democrats. You are more likely to see an “America, love it or leave it” style bumper sticker on a Range Rover than, say, a Prius.  

It’s the grand accomplishment of the Conservative movement in the last thirty years. Public Relations and Marketing executives the world over should study the Conservatives’ campaign to paint themselves as the real American Patriots for decades. This campaign has permeated all elements of our society. 

This branding is so successful, the Republican Party has been able to get millions and millions of Americans to vote directly against their own well being and the well being of their families and communities, simply because they think the Republicans are more patriotic than Democrats. In fact they have not only successfully created the Patriotic Republican brand; they have simultaneously created the un-Patriotic Liberal brand. 

In the last ten years, however, we have seen how tragically misleading this branding has been for our great nation. 

First, let’s define Patriotism. Webster states it simply: “Love or devotion to one’s country.”

Devotion. 

True devotion to one’s country or family and friends has an underlying truth that when you devote yourself to a cause or a person, you are willing to endure sacrifice for the well being of that person or cause. 

When you focus on that element of Patriotism and study the last ten years of the Conservative movement, it becomes quite clear; the Patriotic Republican brand is nothing more than an empty shell. And the Progressive focus on real patriotism, real devotion to your country; from its seniors to its soldiers; is a true exemplar of devotion and patriotism. 

First let’s focus on the GOP. Their rejection of true Patriotism hit its peak last December. Two important deadlines were facing our nation. First, the Bush Tax cuts for the top earners—people who have gotten five and six figure tax cuts over the last ten years, was about to expire.

Second, the Democrats had fashioned a bill that would cover the health care bills for the 9-11 Responders; the men and women who ran toward the collapsing buildings. Many of these emergency workers have suffered horribly from inhaling all the toxic chemicals at Ground Zero. From Jet Fuel to asbestos to who knows what else, these people willingly jumped into hell to save their fellow Americans. 

I look to these fine people to define devotion and patriotism. 

The Republicans said, no. 

 They rejected this funding on two counts. First Obama and the Democrats had, up until this point, stayed strong on cutting the deficit by $700 billion by letting the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy expire. Secondly they rejected the deficit neutral funding of the measure. Democrats created three small taxes and fees that affected companies who outsourced American jobs to other nations provide goods and services.

The Republicans made it clear they would let these 9-11 Responders suffer and die until they got their tax cuts for the rich and until they could protect companies who sent American jobs overseas. 

Obama, being the dignified, compassionate and tragically terrible negotiator, caved. It’s hard to argue with Barack Obama’s devotion to the well-being 9-11 Responders. He took the bad deal rather than let them suffer.  He was passionate about getting them the health care they needed after ten long years of suffering and a lifetime of service to their nation. And he wanted to encourage American job creation while adding zero dollars to the deficit. 

The  Republicans said, no. 

So we got a $700 billion increase in the debt and the people who have made a million or more in tax cuts in the last ten years cash in. 

I believe the Republicans reached this nadir of inverse patriotism with a heavy lift from the burgeoning Tea Party movement. Like the Reagan-led movement begun in the late 70s and early 80s the Tea Party has worn the cloak of Revolutionary Patriotism to create one the most selfish, unpatriotic and one of the most anti-civil rights movements our nation has seen since the 60s. 

There’s a joke that puts this into near perfect perspective.

A CEO, a Tea Partier and a Teacher are sitting at a table. There are 12 cookies on the table. The CEO takes 11 of the cookies and looks to the Tea Partier and says, “That teacher wants to take your cookie.”

That CEO is close friends with Grover Norquist, possibly one of the most powerful and unpatriotic of American  Citizens. Norquist has convinced just about every Republican in Congress to sign a pledge to never, ever, cross your heart and hope to die, raise a tax or even close a tax loophole. Essentially he has said it is better to throw middle class citizens under the bus, destroy education, allow our infrastructure to crumble and leave millions of families in great heath care peril, so the rich can get even richer and richer. 

And now the Tea Party (Taxed Enough Already)  rank and file believe they are protected from ever having a tax increase by Norquist and his fellow millionaire Republicans. 

TheThe Tea Party rank and file, millions of middle class Americans, has been led to believe they are overtaxed, over regulated and being led by a man who is most likely a Muslim friend of terrorists who probably isn’t even American. 

And what’s worse, they have been told they can pay for wars, roads, highways, bridges, Medicare and Social Security without having to sacrifice for it. They have been told and they are willing to believe, that making a sacrifice for the greater good of the nation is a dangerous form of Socialism or even, dare I say, Communism. In other words, it’s just un-American to sacrifice for the greater good of the country. 

Once you truly believe that, then the Exxons of the world have you right where they want you. Because it’s not middle class Americans who are being asked to sacrifice for the good of the country. It’s the Exxons and the Elites of the world. And they refuse. 

Behind them are the people waving that yellow flag with the snake on it. The Tea Party people who believe the government is out to get them. One can almost see the strings happily being pulled by Wall Street hedge fund managers and Big Insurance executives and middle class Americans, about to be screwed, sing the songs of their puppeteers. 

The great and skilled provocateurs of this most unpatriotic movement; Rush, Sean, Glen, Sarah, Michelle, Rupert….the list is almost endless, reap billions from pulling these strings. 

What so many of the middle class Tea Party rank and file do not know, is that they have benefitted from the most significant middle class tax cuts in American history. 

 All signed into law by none other than Barack Obama. 

They have been given protections for their health care like no other generation of middle class Americans in history. Their children can no longer be rejected for health insurance if they are cancer survivors or born with a heart defect. This same protection will soon apply to adults. 

Small business owners who are sole proprietors can now deduct all of their health insurance costs for the year. 

Many of these middle class Tea Party members have also benefitted from the dreaded Stimulus and the Auto Industry bailouts; both of which stopped the hemorrhaging of 750,000 jobs a month and saved/created, by most economists and the Congressional Budget Office’s estimation, 4 million jobs total. 

Financial Regulatory reform is now in place and will soon be set up to protect small investors; home owners and holders of 401(k)s and other retirement plans, from being gambled away by the same Wall Street brokers who assisted in the collapse of our economy in 2008. 

But here’s the deal folks. The huge corporations; the oil industry, big insurance, and Wall Street do not benefit from these efforts to protect the vast majority of American citizens. 

They do not have the devotion to our great nation that someone like, I don’t know, Barack Obama might have. 

Remember, the Tea Party was originally formed out of a consortium of insurance companies called FreedomWorks. They are the ones who, along with the help of Sarah Palin and others in the Republican Party, lied about Death Panels in Health Care Reform legislation.

Their goal was to make sure they would never be forced to stop ripping off their customers, denying health protection that was part of their contracts and arbitrarily raise rates on innocent Americans who thought they were buying health protection for their families.

Instructions were laid out on blogs and web sites showing how Town Halls could be disrupted. Here’s one quote from an article entitled: A Patriot’s Guide to Disrupting Health Care Townhalls. The article was adorned with a photograph of a person dressed as Hitler in full Nazi solute.

“The lobbying groups Freedomworks and Americans for Prosperity who organized the highly successful tea party protests have issued suggestions on the best ways to infiltrating town halls and harass Democratic members of Congress to show opposition to health care reform and clean energy. No less than Representative Pete Sessions (R-TX) has endorsed this strategy for letting our voices be heard and shutting up our opponents. Sessions said, ‘The days of civil town halls are over.’”

Thus far I’m not feeling that patriotic devotion to our fellow citizens. 

But here’s the kicker. Among the instructions for ending civilized debate on Health Care Reform:

·         Artificially Inflate Your Numbers: “Spread out in the hall and try to be in the front half.

·         Be Disruptive Early And Often: “You need to rock-the-boat early in the Rep’s presentation,

·         Try To “Rattle Him,” Not Have An Intelligent Debate:

Iraq and Patriotism

On the 5^th anniversary of the September 11^th attacks, then President George W. Bush declared the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to be as important as World War II.  "The war against this enemy is more than a military conflict. It is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century and the calling of our generation, ” he said.

Yet neither Bush, nor Cheney nor any of the leadership of the Republicans who dominated the Federal Government at the time asked anyone but the soldiers who fought those wars and their families to make a sacrifice for the sake of our civilization.

The Conservatives in government and in the radio and TV mediums, decided early on that Americans who were making the most money should be asked to make least amount of sacrifice in support of our soldiers and their families.   

Removing the tax cuts for the wealthy would have allowed us to fight these wars, pay for them and come out of the wars with a fairly stable budget. Instead they kept cutting; the first time in American history taxes were cut while we were ensconced in an international conflict. 

They waved the flags loudly, they made those of us who were against the Iraq war look as if we were cowards with no sense of Patriotic duty. 

But as our soldiers suffered through bloody battles, land mines and terror attacks, only to return for three, four and five tours, they came home to find the big flag wavers in the White House had more or less abandoned them. 

These physically and often emotionally paralyzed soldiers were treated as if they were parasites trying to suck off the American teat. The Republicans in the White House and in Congress rejected efforts to aid these soldiers and their families as they tried to heal their wounds and find work. 

The list is as shameful as it is reflective of the depth of selfishness exhibited by those who gave themselves five and six figure yearly tax cuts. 

·         The Republicans consistently voted against funding for everything from new body armor to Mine Resistant Vehicles. 

• ·         The Republicans consistently voted against funding for everything from new body armor to Mine Resistant Vehicles. 
• They voted against stop loss payments for soldiers who fought, came home and fought again.
• ·         They voted against military pay raises and extra duty pay. 
• ·         They voted against extending the new GI Bill college benefits to all children of soldiers who died in the battles that followed 9-11.
• ·         They voted against tax breaks for businesses who hired unemployed veterans.
• ·         They voted against giving 2 million disabled vets a one time payment of $250.
• ·         They voted against tax cuts for businesses who kept National Guard Reservists on the payroll while they were in action overseas.
• ·         They voted against offering emergency mortgage relief for members of the armed services..
• ·         Republicans voted on a budget bill that slashed $75 million to fund housing vouchers for homeless veterans.

All of these votes to cut benefits, funding and support for our soldiers came as the Bush Administration and the Republicans in Congress were voting to slash taxes for the wealthiest business owners, biggest corporations, investors and individuals. 

This also occurred while the administration continued to allow Halliburton, a company Harry Truman would have destroyed in his famous World War II Senate hearings on War Profiteering, to literally steal money from taxpayers by overcharging the United States. 

This is only a partial list but the point is clear. When given a choice of tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation of Wall Street, Big Insurance and Big Oil, and lifting the middle class and our soldiers who risked everything for the benefit of our civilization, Movement Conservatives may waive the biggest and brightest flags on July 4^th,  but their devotion to our country; their patriotism is tragically absent. 

The “Don’t Tread on Me” snake flag that is so prevalent in the Tea Party culture has nothing do to with Americans’ rights being violated. It has everything to do with abandoning true patriotism and true devotion and sacrifice for our country.

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