Would you describe yourself as a Patriot?

[el_bryanto]

Poll question: Would you describe yourself as a Patriot?

based on your definition of the word.

Bryant

[ThatsMyBarack]

1. Probably.

I was born in Washington DC. :patriot:

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Where does patriotism end and blind loyalty/chauvenism begin?

[el_bryanto]

3. Well this is your definition of Patriotism you are voting on

You tell us.

Bryant

[niyad]

4. "patriotism is the last refuge of fools and scoundrels"

[kenny blankenship]

9. Used to be the last resort. Typically it's the first now - or else tied with religion for first.

[KeepItReal]

10. +1

Eom

[av8rdave]

5. Absolutely

I love this country, and served it in the armed forces for nearly a dozen years.

The thing I totally resent are the blowhards who think anyone interested in making our country better for more is unpatriotic.

[gateley]

6. Probably - Even though I get disgusted and horrified with what's happening in

our country and think maybe the best thing would be to leave, the thought of actually living anywhere else just makes me SAD.

[kenny blankenship]

7. I love Americans, but I hate what America has become because of Ronald Reagan and his followers

and admirers who've adopted his diseased, rotten-brained mythology.

Reagan had an excuse: he had worms in his brain. Also, being Reagan, he did not have the opportunity to learn first hand what happens to a country when it chooses to cling to flattering myths about its past rather than face its present realities. Everyone after Reagan has had that lesson, though. Other people we could name don't have Alzheimer's to excuse their actions and inactions. They also have the catastrophes and wreckage of Reaganism all around them now, with no excuse to ignore its lessons. Cynicism, either of the times, or of their own personal habits and political background, is not a mitigating factor either.

[MilesColtrane]

18. Regarding Reagan's followers:

I heard Ron Reagan on the radio the other day talking about how the right wing in this country worship his father's memory.

He said that their reflexive referencing of Reagan had reached the point of being fetishistic, that Ronald Reagan had become the "rubber bustier of the Republican party".

[Maru Kitteh]

8. Probably - as in not to the exclusion of viewing myself equally as a world citizen.

[Iggo]

11. Yeah, kind of.

But the knee-jerk flag worshippers probably would not consider me as one.

[white_wolf]

12. I consider myself one

though the Teabaggers would disagree I'm sure since to them anyone who dares to think America has flaws and can be improved is "unAmurkian." Yeah I really don't buy into the whole "American Exceptional-ism" stuff. I think its arrogance of the highest order to think we are better than the rest of the world. I mean sure there are a lot of countries we are better than, but there are some we are not better than especially in areas of equality.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

13. "Patriotism is the most foolish of passions, and the passion of fools." Schopenhauer

A sentiment I agree with.

[el_bryanto]

14. Why? Is it the citizen of the world thing?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

20. Because love of one's patch of the planet above other patches is kinda silly.

And, being willing to kill or die for something as nebulous as "my country" is insane.

[el_bryanto]

21. Ah - you are one of the very few sane people who have ever existed

That must be very lonely.

Bryant

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

22. Not really. Most of the people who ever existed never fought in a war.

Despite the glamorous notion of it peddled by the "patriots".

[el_bryanto]

24. So you believe that to be patroitic is to be in favor of war? n/t

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

25. Yes.

If not, why is it all the "leaders" use patriotism to start/fight wars?

Of course, I could never figure out what "love of country" actually means. Is it like loving the home team? Your dog? Your favorite TV show? A piece of chocolate cream pie? And, if it is, would you be willing to kill and die for them?

I was asked to extend my enlistment to go and kill people in Vietnam that I didn't know, had nothing against, and might even have liked, as an act "patriotism". Not to mention all the other folks the Marines might be assigned to kill for their "country". I found the offer to be downright insulting.

[el_bryanto]

27. Well the fact that Patriotism is used to sell wars is regrettable

I would argue that love of country means love of your fellow citizens - a certain well wishing for them and the nation you share. You want your fellow citizens to both do well (be more or less successful) and do good (be generally moral and positive (not that we are this, much of the time)).

Obviously in the case of Vietnam we were the agressive nation; on the other hand, what do you think motivated the RAF in WW2 during the blitz?

Bryant

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

28. Could you not hold all those same feelings for all peoples.

Or, are Americans and America exceptional?

The RAF, or the members thereof, were motivated for all the usual reasons that wars are fought. I would suspect that some were motivated by a desire for adventure, others by homicidal thoughts, others by vanity, others by hatred, others by love.

I rather doubt that any were motivated by the love of the loo the Birmingham bus station.

[el_bryanto]

29. It would depend on whether or not you think an area or a nation has a character distinct from

it's individuals. I believe that the United States has a distinct character, a collection of traits, some positive and some negative, that makes America different than France or Thailand or Peru.

Americans are exceptional in the same sense that my brother is exceptional; he has particular signficance to me because he's my brother. Hopefully that doesn't mean I wouldn't be willing to hold him accountable for his failings. Rather, because I wish him to do well, I feel free to tell him his errors and the like. I would feel less comfortable walking up to a random stranger and telling him that he should do this and that (although certainly if he were doing something very destructive I might). By the same token, I feel responsible to correct America as much as possible, while feeling much less necessity to correct, say, Peru (I understand that many other Americans disagree with me on this point, and believe that American Exceptionalism not only allows but mandates us telling every other nation what to do).

Bryant

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

30. Why limit yourself?

I have no problem acknowledging faults or positive aspects about other countries/cultures as well as those here. I can applaud Japanese courtesy and condemn whale killing. I can praise Britain's parliamentary system and abhor her involvement in Iraq. Just I can respect our constitution and still bitch about it's faults.

What I abhor is any system/culture/identity that says, "I/we are better than you, therefore we have the right to kill or exploit you."

I've done some traveling in the world and met my share of "foreigners" here. In every case, I've discovered that people, no matter what their country/culture, are still people.

“If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that” Shylock, in The Merchant of Venice - William Shakespeare

[efhmc]

15. Definition?

[el_bryanto]

19. And I Quote Myself, "based on your definition of the word." n/t

[The_Commonist]

16. No.

I consider myself a citizen.
And I try to be a good one.

[WinkyDink]

17. Totally. It's why I value the Constitution and its Amendments more than do some notable politicians.

I'm thinking Amendments 1, 4, 5, and 6, specifically.

[treestar]

23. Depends on what the country is doing

I didn't feel so good about it during the Bush era.

[Vidar]

26. Certainly not in terms of what our country now represents.

[defendandprotect]

31. Went with BS because "patriot" has been so exploited by right wing to manipulate public....

so I really wouldn't chose that label -- and certainly wouldn't support

my country "right or wrong" if that's anyone's definition of it --

We're all on this planet together -- people everywhere are the same --

and they don't want war!