Obama's Patriotism Revisited

Several months ago, presidential hopeful Barack Obama was the center of controversy for, of all things, not wearing an American flag lapel pin. Down With Righty followed the story here.

Since then, the Right has changed strategy in the form of numerous attempts to smear Obama as a closet Muslim. This campaign has recently gotten some of the bottom feeders in the Right-wing media (like Bill Cunningham) into hot water with both the mainstream media and even Republican John McCain. Despite the support of virtually the entire Right-wing media machine and a grassroots email campaign, the Obama-Muslim strategy has now appeared to have lost momentum.

So it's back to the drawing board. Thanks to the recent misconstrued (and edited) comments of Michelle Obama and a widely circulated image above of Barack with his hands to his sides during the national anthem, Obama's patriotism has once again been called into question.

First, let's look at Michelle Obama's comments. On February 19th, Michelle made a speech applauding Americans for demanding more from their leaders and crediting these people with some of her husband's success on the campaign trail. In the middle of the speech, she uttered the now famous line, "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I'm really proud of my country." Of course the Right-wing media blew right past the fact that Mrs. Obama was swelling with pride for her country, and instead went insane with the inevitable "Wait a minute, why wasn't she proud before now? What does she have to not be proud about?!! Traitor!!!"

Adding to the spectacle of an overblown attempt to paint the Obamas as un-American was the fact that the quotation appeared in an edited form in the mainstream media:

The poorly edited video - without the word "really" - made it into the mainstream media, where news agencies began reporting that Michelle Obama had never before been proud of her country. What's the big deal? It's just one little word that was deleted from the speech. What difference can one word make. Well, in my opinion, it can mean quite a bit. Basically, it is the difference between Michelle Obama showing an elevated level of patriotism because of the support shown to her husband, and never before having the slightest ounce of American pride. To me, that is a huge difference. Sorry, a really huge difference.

It's like that game we used to play in grade school, the one where a phrase is whispered from one kid to another in a circle until it reaches it's point of origin again, and is no doubt altered beyond any semblance of the original phrase. Well, the Right-wing bloggers took Michelle Obama's quotation and ran with it, until this is what came out:

"[S]he hasn’t had a real moment of pride in her country for the duration of her adult life." - Michellemalkin.com

"Michelle Obama Finally Proud of America After 44 Years" - urbangrounds.com

"Michelle Obama has never been proud of her country before?" - neoconnews.com

"She hasn’t been proud of America for 20+ years, apparently" - blogger Out West

"Michelle Hussein Obama Says She's Been Ashamed of the U.S. for Decades" - debbieschlussel.com

"Instead of seeing America as a place which afforded her the opportunity to create a blessed life, Mrs. Obama seems to view it as a place where some 'people' are always trying to hold her back." - The Weekly Standard

So while each blogger's commentary has strayed it's own way from the original statement, the last comment by the Weekly Standard really takes the cake. Not only is it the most derivative, but also the most telling insight into the conservative mind. I don't know what is more amusing: watching the Weekly Standard transform Mrs. Obama's "really proud" comment into some misguided indignation leveled at "The Man," or conservatives' reluctance to acknowledge that any American has ever behaved in a way that would inspire anything but the utmost pride in country. Americans owned slaves for 200 years. Americans wiped the Native Americans off the face of the earth. Americans didn't allow women to vote for 150 years. Americans have used weapons of mass destruction. Americans killed Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Americans have used steroids to cheat in the Olympic Games. Americans have set up puppet regimes in other countries. Americans have brokered illegal arms deals. Americans have started wars unprovoked. Americans have profited from these wars.

Yes, Americans have done some very wonderful things throughout the relatively short history of this country, far too many to list here. But not everything Americans do is necessarily good. That brings me to the next main point of this post: Why is unfettered patriotism a critical asset of any presidential candidate? In fact, the flag-waving, unyielding, unquestioning uber-patriotism espoused by much of the Right is in many ways a negative personality trait. It's narcissism on a national scale. Just like a person can love themselves too much, people can love their country too much as well, to the point where they develop a myopic view of their homeland, it's leaders and their actions. Where an individual must find common ground between narcissism and low self-esteem, so must a nation's citizens find a balance between blind flag-waving on one side and treason on the other. A nation, like any individual, is neither all good nor all bad. A true patriot is someone who takes the good with the bad, one who takes pride in the good and learns from the bad. The United States has, in recent history, had politicians and pundits more concerned with rationalizing the bad than learning from it, and that is how societies stagnate or even regress.

In the most innocuous cases, a leader with hyper-patriotism will often ignore other countries when it comes to advice on global issues or examples of successful domestic plans. It will cause the leader to over-emphasize matters of national security under-emphasize matters of national identity. It will cause a leader to ignore or simply be oblivious to very real problems for fear of being seen as negative toward the country. Look at Bush and the economy. He kept telling the nation that everything was great, in spite of mounting evidence to the contrary, until it was too late to reverse the trend. Essentially, too much patriotism will prevent the leader from making sound, unbiased decisions. We have seen the results of a hyper-patriotic presidency with our current leader. We have also seen it in leaders of past fascist regimes and I, for one, would prefer a candidate who maintains the ability to temper his/her national pride with some good old fashioned objectivity.

But back to the issue at hand, Obama and his supposed lack of national pride. The picture in Time magazine with his hands at his sides during the national anthem? Doesn't bother me. I'm sure many a politician has been photographed without a hand over his/her heart, most not living in nearly as much scrutiny as Barack Obama. But it is this kind of thing that causes epileptic fits on the Right. There were emails circulating, claiming that Obama "refused to not only put his hand on his heart during the pledge of allegiance, but refused to say the pledge." In fact, Obama did not "refuse" to put his hand over his heart, nor was this during the pledge, nor did he refuse to say the pledge. But when you have so few issues to go to bat with (as Republicans do this election cycle), you can't let the Democrats slip when it comes to national pride. To me, the idea that someone could aspire to be the leader of his country and not have pride in that country is beyond absurdity, but as long as some people are willing to believe it, the Right will keep pushing it.

Thanks to the Time magazine photo, the comments by Mrs. Obama, and the backfiring of the "Obama-is-a-Muslim" campaign, attacking Obama's patriotism is back on the table. On the February 22nd broadcast of Real Time With Bill Maher, panelist Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) revisited the lapel pin and pledge controversy. Ironically, Kingston was not wearing a lapel pin himself during the program.

The whole thing is really a moot point. Whether Barack Obama or his wife are flag-waving patriots is of very little concern to me. Of greater concern is whether a candidate is competent, independent, loyal to his constituency, and possesses integrity beyond reproach. As I mentioned before, the uber-patriot usually does not make the best leader. And before Americans start attacking Obama's lack of patriotism, they should really start to examine their own. How many times have you taken in the national anthem with your hands down? How many times have you approached Memorial Day as just another day off? How well do you know the U.S. Constitution? Or U.S. history?

In summary, there are several reasons the attacks on Obama's patriotism are bogus:

1) Wearing lapel pins and placing your hand over your heart do not make you a good American. They are symbols and anyone who thinks symbols trump substance is severely out of touch.

2) Being supremely nationalistic is not only not a prerequisite for the presidency, it is in fact a detrimental to one's ability to perform the duties of the president in an objective manner.