Reply #67: I think there are a few things that should be said about this

[Time for change]

I certainly don't brush off the accusation that "liberals hate America". But I do feel that, as a general statement it is highly misleading, and it is poisoness to our cause as well, since some people are taken in by such statements and consequently driven to side with the Bush administration, for example -- which is precisely why they spread such statements.

Obviously I don't mean to say by that that there aren't SOME people who call themselves liberal and are also filled with irrational hate and say a lot of things that they shouldn't. All political parties encompass some irrational people.

The kind of "hate" that you're referring to is a kind that may be more akin to "blame". But I think that there are some things that need to be considered when accusing someone of "hating America" because they put too much blame on it.

First, the essence of self-improvement is to look first to one's self in the assessment of blame. For example, if I get into a fight with my wife, I am more likely to improve my social skills and improve myself spiritually if I first consider the MY role in the fight, rather than reflexively blaming her. The same applies to international relationships. When Senator Durbin criticized our administration for its treatment of its prisoners of war, for example (rightly and courageously IMO), many Republicans criticized him because he failed to criticize Al Qaeda when he made his Senate speech. But they were missing the point. It would serve no useful purpose for Durbin to criticize Al Qaeda (except to save his own skin politically). He was bringing up a gross violation of international law (as well as moral law) on the part of our administration, and there was no logical need to bring Al Qaeda into that discussion.

Related to this is the fact that when one blames our government for something, that is often, if not usually, done for the purpose of trying to improve our country. The blamer is trying to bring attention to what he or she perceives as a serious wrong, in the hope that by doing so, that will in some way help to correct it.

Take Michael Moore, for example, since you brought him up. I do agree that he has sometimes exaggerated or cherry picked, though I can't think of a specific instance (I did hear that he did that in Bowling for Columbine, but I didn't catch it at the time, and I don't recall in what sense he did that). Anyhow, I think that his Farenheit 9-11 was an excellent film that called attention to an enormous problem, shortly before an election, admittedly with the purpose of influencing that election. Did he make any mistakes in that film? I am not aware of any, in fact I think that to be more accurate he could have gone a lot further than he did. I think that it was a very courageous effort on his part, and I think that he undertook that effort because of his love for his country, even if he did make some mistakes in it (and I'm not aware that he did).