Blame America First

By Anthony Levensalor

Saturday, September 24, 2005 at 12:58 AM

So much has been put into the PR campaign of the current crop of politicians to label anyone who disagrees with our involvement in the Middle East as part of the "Blame America First" crowd.

I think I'd like to take a moment to comment on that...

I guess the first question that springs to mind is "Why do Liberals hate America?" At least, that would be the question that springs to mind from people who consider dissent treasonous, and any speech or thought that contradicts the policies of this nation to be "hating America".

Of course, Liberals and Progressives do not hate America. Bill O'Reilly also does not hate America. When Clinton was in office, the current crop of GOP apologists were attack dogs, and the current crop of Democratic attack dogs were the apologists. This is not about hating anything, this is about political unity in the eyes of the pundits.

It is the nature of us as a people to revile that which disagrees with our preconceived notions of the universe, plain and simple. Some things, we know, are simply wrong on a human level, and that does not vary from party to party as much as we might like to think.

If I were to meet a non-sitting President Bush at a bar in Texas, have a drink with him, and talk politics, would I call him evil because we disagreed? Not likely. A conversation with Bush as a non-sitting president would likely result in me getting up from the table and walking away, and probably paying for his drink, just because I felt sorry for the poor hick who had such misguided notions about the world.

But if Bush were just a man, and not the figurehead of a nation in rapid decline, would I take him any more seriously thank I take my dentist? Would I be accused of hating America because I disagreed with him? I'd like to think not.

This dissent that we see spread out in so many ways across so many venues in the Liberal side of the political spectrum is not an attempt to tear our country down. It is an attempt, I think, to possibly salvage what we have left, to try to shore up the damns a bit and slow the already interminable and painful decline of this nation once considered the greatest on the planet.

It is my opinion that the person who says that disagreeing with the globalizing and imperialist foreign policy of George W. Bush is hating America is more likely to be the one who doesn't like her all that much.

For what is America, if not her people? What politicians, pundits, newscasters, and celebrities often forget when they start wagging their foolish tongues is that without the people, there is no America. Without a thriving, motivated population that believes in its cause, there is nothing to save, nothing to protect, and nothing to come home to.

Who would purposely attempt to destroy America? Certainly, the government would have us believe that it is anyone outside of our shores, which may or may not be the case. If we are not careful, however, we may find ourselves facing the people who really do hate America here at home while our army is off chasing ghosts in a cave halfway across the world.

Does Jane Fonda hate America? Who gives a damn? What about Bill O'Reilly, does he speak for the common man, the blue collar worker who has a wife and child to feed on his $300/week from the factory? Of course not, he is a millionaire, and he has the luxury of sitting back and forming the convenient opinion, of pursuing the path of least resistance while others toil away and kick back to watch him pontificate at night. Is he right, or is he wrong? Who gives a damn?

The right will say I hate America because I think that this president and his advisors should indeed be held responsible for the real crimes they have committed. They will say I hate America because I don't like the way we are killing innocent alongside the guilty in a far away place that never had the ability to attack us the way we were led to believe when they led us to believe it.

But if there is anything I love other than my family, it is this country. It is to the benefit of everyone that some people protest, that some people use their voice to actually speak, instead of sing along with the chorus.

Blame America First? If she is the one to blame, yes, we will blame her. When someone attacks us, we would gladly lay our lives on the line to defend her. But when she is oppressive, imperialistic, and the meanest kid on the playground, how are we to reconcile our honor and dignity alongside this new America? How do we support the actions of a government that has gone out of its way to deceive us, to lead our brothers and sisters to fight and die in a sand pit on the whim of a madman?

To ask me to dishonor the America I love by supporting this new America, land of the crooked and home of the cowardly, then you ask too much. I love America, but I love the America I grew up knowing, even thought that American ideal of which I was taught was long gone before I was born.

I don't blame America, I blame money. Not rich people, but money. It has led this country to a place where it no longer sits in a place of solidity and strength, but instead represents oppression and war of choice around the world.

~A!