The Lament of a True Patriot

[babylonsister]

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/10630

The Lament of a True Patriot
by Andrew Bard Schmookler | Oct 24 2007



I grieve deeply to see how America has failed to meet the present urgent challenge-- indeed the very challenge that our Founders were most concerned that America should be able to meet. These are dark days for any true American patriot.

WHAT MAKES A TRUE PATRIOT

The true patriot is the one who loves the heart and soul of his country. In America --the nation whose essence is said to be an idea-- that heart and soul is the system of government given us by our Founders and the democratic spirit embedded in it. It is that system and that spirit that have allowed Americans, for more than two centuries, to live as free people in a society that, by the standards of human history, has been reasonably decent.

The true patriots are not defined by their enthusiasm for the victories of American militarists, but by their devotion to those principles for which –as we declare every Memorial Day– so many Americans have laid down their lives: principles of limited government, human rights, and the rule of law.

The true patriots are not those who wrap themselves in the banner descended from what Betsy Ross sewed, but those who carry forth that "Spirit of '76" enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, the spirit that made our forebears willing --in the name of liberty and of the proposition that governments are instituted to serve the people and derive their just powers from the people's consent--to put their lives on the line.

THIS IS THE VERY THREAT OUR FOUNDERS WARNED US AGAINST

Now there has arisen --from within the American political system-- the very kind of threat that our Founders feared most: a lawless and usurpatious presidency systematically assaulting our constitutional system.

The picture of presidential lawlessness could not be clearer. The case has been made powerfully and in detail by responsible and knowledgeable Americans-- by people like Bruce Fein, Elizabeth de la Vega, Glenn Greenwald, John Dean. They show the unmistakable pattern of conduct by which the heart of America --"a nation of laws, not of men"-- is being destroyed by this Bush regime.

snip//

It causes me such pain, such grief, such sadness to see the America I love –that creation on this continent that was one of humankind’s greatest historic achievements—under such assault, and none of the major components of our body politic with enough vision and courage and passion to fight to protect and preserve our sacred birthright.

_______

[ixion]

1. everyday I weep for what we have become

It is so far removed from where we were at 7 years ago (which was not perfect) that it is difficult for me to reconcile the two worlds, so very far removed.

[BridgeTheGap]

2. So many of us are lamenting

Do they have a drug for that now? (besides heroin)

[babylonsister]

3. I'm sure the big pharmas could fix you up with something. nt