America Haters

Blowhards on the far-right are constantly proclaiming that they are the True Americans.  They and they alone love our constitution and seek to defend our cherished freedoms.  Anyone who dares to disagree with them ‘hates America.’  Only ultra-right Fox News types, they tell us, can claim the title of Patriot.

To hear them tell it, anyone who speaks out against racism, police abuses, economic inequality, militarism, the rape of our environment or who stands in favor of religious tolerance or an adequate safety net for the poor is a member of one of two groups: 

Those who are plotting in secret, using lies and subterfuge to undermine our constitution and destroy our freedom, casting us into an infernal pit of _____

[…fill in the blank.  It could be a totalitarian communist state like Cambodia under Pol Pot, a worldwide Islamic caliphate, or the dreaded One World Government Under Satan; predictions vary].  

In other words, America Haters.

The second group is said to be comprised of those who are too naïve to realize that they are being duped by the first group.  

In other words, fools and tools of the America Haters.

I’ve been hearing this sort of self righteous nonsense from these guys for years, so imagine my surprise at learning of their utter, flaming outrage over the removal of confederate battle flags, statues and monuments in the South.  How can these self proclaimed America Lovers hold such reverence for the worst America Haters of them all? 

I mean, confederates didn’t just advocate policies that some people predicted would eventually lead to our downfall.  They did everything in their power to bring it about right then.  They seceded from our nation, abandoned our constitution and slaughtered hundreds of thousands in a war against our country.

You can’t get more anti-American than that.

Those traitors caused the death of around 365,000 American soldiers!  What a profound insult to their heroic memory and what a slap in the face it is to their descendants to support memorials for their America-hating killers.  So much for honoring OUR veterans, the true patriots who fought, sacrificed and died at their hands to defend our constitution.

Now I can understand why Klan and neo-Nazi types oppose their removal, since they hate everyone who isn’t a white Christian (in other words, most Americans).  People who waged war in order to preserve slavery and white supremacy would naturally be counted among their heroes.  If they had their way, we’d all be living in a modern day confederacy, where non-whites would know and keep ‘their place.’

What I can’t understand is why anyone else who claims to love our nation and its constitution could honor those who did everything in their power to smash them both.  Would they also endorse memorials to other enemies of the United States, like the soldiers and leaders of Nazi Germany?  Would they support the erection of a statue of Admiral Yamamoto at Pearl Harbor? 

…I’d be lyin’ if I said I understood.