Published: May 19, 2008 03:28 pm            

Column: So you think you're a patriot? Prove it

LEBANON, Ind. — OK, that’s it. I’ve had it with the bickering, the squabbling, the are-too-are-nots.

No, I’m not retiring early, so a few of you can go back to cursing.

Especially the guy — and you know who you are — who is going to owe me a Persian roll from Titus Bakery in Lebanon because he bet me that Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic nominee for president. I said he was wrong.

I prefer cream-filled Persian rolls, by the way.

We, My Fellow Americans, have been sucked into a logic trap.

We have allowed the forces of greed and stupidity, cynicism and arrogance, to kidnap rational discourse.

We’ve fallen for the fallacy that a person is either a conservative or a liberal.

We have allowed political extremists to declare that politics is an “either/or” situation, in which if one does not agree 100 percent with any given position, one is, by definition, evil.

By “political extremists,” I mean anyone who believes — or who claims to believe, which is not the same — that people are either liberals or conservatives.

The idea is so simplistic it is insulting.

More worrisome, it’s dangerous.

We have allowed the maniacs to craft the debate by limiting the conversation to the societal equivalent of an “on-off switch.” Our nation is suffering.

Extremists are concerned only with power, profit and position. Patriotism? Please. To the extreme right, patriotism is a tool, to dismantle the common community and to build a world in which they, and only they, dictate reality. To the extreme left, patriotism is a tainted tactic employed to make the world safe for unfettered capitalism.

Some extreme liberals think the conservative extremists are winning. Some extreme conservatives think the liberal extremists are winning.

I know whose losing: All the rest of us.

It’s past time for us to shut out those who try to squeeze 250 million people into two holes, and instead start building a framework on which to hang the thousands of political nuances that we represent.

I believe in freedom of religion — and freedom from religion. I believe anyone who uses a firearm while committing a crime should be sentenced to life in prison. I believe anyone who does not have a criminal record and who can pass a stringent written and field examination should be allowed to openly carry a handgun.

I believe using abortion as birth control is morally abhorrent — and I believe that only the woman who is pregnant can or should decide whether to carry a fetus to term.

I believe in a pro-life organization’s right to picket an abortion clinic — and I believe anyone who claims to be pro-life should put their name on a waiting list, and adopt, without question or qualification, the next unwanted child who is born to a mother who cannot or will not nurture that child.

There is no opt-out clause if the next kid is born with catastrophic illnesses, or profound mental or physical impairments, or any other birth defect. You claim to be pro-life, you take what life offers. No exceptions.

I believe there is no practical difference between the economic value of a Fortune 500 company CEO and a teenager who is frying hamburgers at a fast-food joint. When you think about it, a CEO who screws up will most often cost his company’s taxpayers money.

The hamburger flipper can kill people. Who should have the higher financial incentive to do his job carefully, thoroughly and safely?

I believe that being a patriotic American is a privilege — and that it carries an obligation to be aware, educated and willing to change one’s mind if convincing evidence is presented.

I believe we elect a Congress and a President not to represent political parties but to represent the people of the United States.

I believe that before we elect our next president, we have a moral, ethical and patriotic obligation to first educate ourselves, and then ask the candidates for specific solutions to the multiple problems facing not only this nation, but western civilization.

One step toward that education is to understand that politics is not binary. It’s a million shades of colors.

There are any number of Web sites at which “political orientation” tests can be taken. Some are skewed toward ideology — which is not reality. Bear that in mind when taking the tests. (See break-out box.)

One Web site offers tests titled the “stupid conservative quote quiz” and the “stupid liberal quote quiz.”

On both tests, I answered 5 of 15 questions correctly. The Web site informed me, “Your knowledge is underwhelming. You obviously haven’t been listening that carefully to all the idiotic things conservatives say.” Or “all the idiotic things liberals say.”

If you are a true American — and not a traitor hiding behind ideology — you owe it to your country to study current issues, so you can separate ideology from reality.



— Rod Rose writes for The Lebanon (Ind.) Reporter. He may be reached at rod.rose@reporter.net.





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political placement

find out where you really stand:

www.politicalcompass.org

http://politicalquiz.net

www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html

http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blpoliticalquiz.htm

        

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