Patriotism

Extreme fringes of the American electorate, hardly indicative of mainstream thinking if such exists, have occupied headlines in major media since the Charlottesville events. That relatively small demonstration by conservative-right sources ranging from nationalists to separatists to Nazis and alienated people without labels was countered by an outpouring of relatively liberal-left numbers of a more generally popular though as alienated from actual roots among the electorate group.

“Make America Great Again” was Donald Trump’s campaign slogan. It appeals to the people whose hearts beat with patriotic fervor. But what does such a slogan explicitly point out?
Syntactically, Trump is telling Americans that the United States of America is not great. A country can only become something again when it is currently not that something it seeks to recapture – in this case, that something is greatness. So currently the US is not great according to the mantra of Trump.
Two questions are raised by this?

A protester holds an American flag while protesting a grand jury decided not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in Oakland, Calif.
The Fourth of July. The most American of days. If you left your home or scrolled your social media accounts, you undoubtedly saw disrespect towards the American flag. It isn’t a new expression of speech, but it is certainly more widespread today than in years past. So the question arises: how can you make people respect the flag?

And I love all people, rich or poor. But in those particular positions, I just don’t want a poor person. Does that make sense? Does that make sense?

Colin Kaepernick took a courageous and principled stand last season by kneeling during the national anthem before NFL games. This was done in response to a society that continues to systematically, culturally, and institutionally devalue Black lives. This devaluation is played out in many areas, including politics, economics, housing, employment, and perhaps most notably, within the criminal punishment system. Black lives are routinely extinguished by police in the streets without recourse, in the courts without pause, and in the prisons without hesitation.

The 100th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s birth has triggered multiple Camelot retrospectives. However, few people know that JKF's famous quote, “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country,” has been warped, its meaning dramatically altered.

In B. Traven’s novel, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1927):
“All right,” Curtin shouted back. “If you are the police, where are your badges? Let’s see them.”
“Badges, to god-damned hell with badges! We have no badges. In fact, we don’t need badges. I don’t have to show you any stinking badges, you god-damned cabrón and chinga tu madre!”

One of the toughest things I’ve been facing is the bald-faced collective delusion of fellow Americans. From the rank and file social worker, to even the people I serve – homeless, street people, addicted, just out of prison – to the creeps at the top, like my own Oregon’s Phil Knight, Nike guy, all the way through to the politicians, bureaucrats, and those vaunted intellectuals. These delusions center around capitalism, the buy-sell world of service economies, deep into the transnational crap that is the under girder of America’s engines of the rich.

When Donald Trump won a divisive election, he promised to unite a divided America and many people simply did not believe that he could accomplish that.
The events of last week however, have shown that through putting America on the path to war, he has done just that.

Amidst an orgy of martial patriotism that is finally over, there was a sad irony.