The Land I (try to) Love

This post was submitted by Corey, a TNG Editorial Assistant and local blogger.

First, Sarah Palin said at an event in North Carolina that she loves to visit the "pro-America" parts of the country. Then, Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-Minn.) told Chris Matthews that Barack Obama and many members of Congress might be "anti-American," and that there needs to be a special investigation of this for the good of the country.

Not to be outdone, reports were confirmed today that Rep. Robin Hayes (R-N.C.) said while opening for John McCain that "liberals hate real Americans that work and accomplish and achieve and believe in God." The Hayes story is perhaps the most atrocious of all because he tried for several days to cover things up, blaming the media for practicing "irresponsible journalism" - sound familiar?? - until an audio tape surfaced. Now Hayes said he had forgotten the comments, which are being taken out of context.

Bachmann had made the case that because Bill Ayers, a domestic terrorist with a very loose association to Obama, and Jeremiah Wright, a former pastor at Obama's old church, had liberal views and also anti-American views, that all liberals must be suspected of harboring anti-American sentiment. She mentioned Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in particular, and wouldn't comment as to the third or so of Americans who self-identify as being liberal.

Matthews did a pretty good job of grilling Bachmann, but one thing he failed to bring up is that a lot of right-wing folks have been "anti-American," too, if we can even label something like that. The Ku Klux Klan is a conservative organization, and so is the Westboro Baptist Church, which protests at military funerals that soldiers deserve to die because America is tolerant of gays. (I guess "tolerant" is a relative term.) Surely even few Republicans would consider these groups to be "pro-America," and so there seems to be just as much of a link between conservatism and anti-Americanism as there is with liberalism.

In the end, though, how can we really label anything as anti-American? Literally we might suppose that someone who knowingly wants to do harm to the country is anti-American. But that's not how Palin, Bachmann, and Hayes meant it. What they meant was someone whose views were too radical - in all these cases, too radically to the left - that they could only be considered against the very foundations of our country. Then again, the primary tenant of American society is democracy, and the idea that people are free to believe whatever they want, with ideas debated in public and voted on by citizens. In that case, the only ideology which is anti-American is that which seeks to end democracy and silence voices - which is ironic, because that is precisely what these folks seem to be trying to do.

What I really thought of upon hearing all of these comments, though, was that I am surely one of the people that all three of these politicians would call anti-American. I'm pretty far left politically, I question a lot of America's tactics overseas, I believe in universal health care and a progressive tax system, I believe in the deregulation of marriage and sexuality by the government, I believe in civil rights for all people, including on the basis of sexual orientation, I am agnostic, I am a secularist, and I am gay. And I can bet you that Palin, Bachmann, and Hayes would all tell you in a heart-beat, at least off the record, that I'm exactly the type of person they're talking about.

So I guess my question is, how can I be proud of a country where a good portion of the people think another sizable chunk shouldn't be a part of this nation? How do I respect a country that doesn't offer me equal rights? And how can I love a country that doesn't love me?

I'm not saying I necessarily am not proud, respectful, and appreciative of America, but I'd have to say I'm rather ambivalent at this point. And when I hear stories like this, I wonder, how much of an America is even left for any of us to love or hate? It seems to me that for a long time we've been drifting into two nations, with two different sets of values and agendas. I think back to the map that emerged during the 2004 election that showed the blue states merged with Canada and the rest of the country becoming Jesusland; sometimes I honestly think about that map and wonder if it wouldn't be easier.

But the truth is, we're here together, probably to stay. Yes, Governor Palin - the pro-America parts of America and the not-so-pro-America parts... and yes, Rep. Bachmann, those conservative folks who love this nation and those liberal folks who need to be investigated. We are all one nation, for better or for worse, and maybe it's time we stop fighting over that and try to find a path towards tolerance.

The most difficult times in our nation's past - the Civil War, the Red Scare, the post-9/11 warmongering - have all been characterized by the belief among large pockets of the population that some Americans cannot be trusted because they are too different from "us." That is the sentiment that these comments echo during these trying times for our country. And these are the moments that come to mind when I wonder from time to time how long I, a gay liberal in a center-right country, will be allowed to be American.