Can anyone ever be too patriotic?
It’s a question most Americans probably never contemplated. Having grown up in the 20th century when concepts like love of country and fealty to a set of time-tested political principles was considered a good thing to learn and ingrain, I fondly remember starting each grade school (yes, a public school) morning with not only the pledge of allegiance but also a patriotic song we were expected to memorize.
What a collection of pro-American schleps we were! We were taught things like the American flag has fifty stars representing every state! And it has thirteen stripes signifying the original thirteen colonies! Or Betsy Ross sewed the banner (somewhat in dispute)! How about the American Revolution took six years to fight and win! The Founding Fathers were great men!
Never once did any of us -- at least that I realized or recall -- suspect that we were being indoctrinated into fascist-like groupthink similar to Soviet students at a state-monitored institution. What could possibly be wrong with privileges like freedom and liberty and justice and being “Under God” and learning how men and women from long ago put their lives on the line to protect not only their rights, but also those of future generations of students like myself and my classmates?
Hailing from southern California, my school was fairly integrated for the time, too. All the kids, regardless of skin color, national origin (there were a number of immigrants) or religions were taught the same things. As far as I know, everyone loved it. The lesson plan included famous black Americans, the Holocaust, and the sin of slavery, too. History is history.
It’s only been recently -- meaning, in the past twenty or so years -- that taking patriotism or love of country to a high degree was deemed potentially harmful by the thought police. Certainly nobody supposed that raising an American flag over the rubble of the World Trade Center was a controversial action, though once the initial shock of the carnage died down, human nature took over again when liberals began accusing certain countrymen of a wicked form of disloyalty for taking pride in one’s self and their own beliefs.
The everyone-in-red-white-and-blue-is-a-probable-criminal mindset really took hold after January 6 of this year, when hundreds of thousands of Donald Trump supporters came to Washington, DC, to voice their displeasure with perceived holes in the electoral vote counting system (more appropriately known as Stop the Steal!). A few hundred of them took their feelings to the extreme (unless some were provoked by the capitol police, of course, which, thanks to Julie Kelly of American Greatness, seems eminently plausible). The media went crazy. Democrat leaders in Congress imposed martial law on the hallowed grounds. It was ugly.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority (of a 50-50-partisan-tie-plus-Kamala) Leader “Chucky” Schumer have been calling for a thorough witch hunt/bipartisan investigation for months. Last week Democrats unmasked a Republican stooge to take part in their scheme.
“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Thursday named Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, an outspoken foe of former President Donald Trump, to serve on the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“Ms. Cheney said she was ‘honored’ to be chosen, but House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy called her decision to accept the appointment from the Democratic leader ‘unthinkable.’ He has warned GOP colleagues not to participate in the panel.
“’I was shocked that she would accept something from Speaker Pelosi,’ Mr. McCarthy said at a press conference following the speaker’s announcement. ‘It would appear to me, since I didn’t hear from her, she’s closer to [Mrs. Pelosi] than us. I don’t know.’”
I never thought I’d write this, but kudos to Kevin McCarthy! In this instance, the House GOP leader deserves credit for speaking out when the appropriate occasion calls for it. Like myself, McCarthy grew up in the Golden State and he’s only a few years older than me, so much of what I recollect from my own patriotic emersion (detailed above) must have been echoed in his. In McCarthy’s world, apparently, it’s not so obnoxious to love your country and be willing to take to task those who express unfair and vindictive thoughts like Liz Cheney did towards Donald Trump.
For her part, Pelosi may be an old liberal crone with politics rubbed into every cell of her body, but she isn’t dumb. Adding a Republican to her illegitimate and intensely partisan investigatory company was a stroke of genius, though regular watchers of liberal establishment media news sources will be the only ones to gather anything from it. Watch for a Cheney guest appearance on CNN and MSNBC sometime soon. In agreeing to this, looney Liz assumes the “conservative” chair on the committee, kind of like the one token non-Democrat on ‘The View’. (Incidentally, even wishy-washy Megan McCain is bailing out on the show.)
Under the Democrat-passed guidelines for the committee, Pelosi received eight selection slots and McCarthy only five. Cheney was the only GOPer chosen by San Fran Nan, though there were two Republicans who voted to authorize the troop. Nanny P probably figured that adding Liz to the melee was acceptable, because even if Cheney were to suddenly reverse course, there would still be a Democrat majority.
Judging by the Democrat members Pelosi tapped (Reps. Zoe Lofgren, Adam Schiff and Pete Aguilar of California; Stephanie Murphy of Florida, Jamie Raskin of Maryland, and Elaine Luria of Virginia), there won’t be a single truthful or worthwhile fact garnered from the effort. A waste of time and resources for nothing. The real question is how someone like Cheney could stomach sitting in the same room with a who’s who of Democrat truth-benders, like Adam Schiff? Hasn’t the world seen enough of him already?
Whatever the Democrats and Liz discover that fits their narrative will be used in the committee’s final report -- and what they don’t find, they’ll invent. Don’t believe it? Just look back to the beginning of last year at the first Trump impeachment trial, when Pelosi, Schiff and henchmen tried proving the president’s phone call with the Ukrainian leader was a quid pro quo arrangement for an eastern European based probe into crooked Joe Biden’s family. Sure, like Hunter Biden is a standout patriot!
This committee is a farce. Let’s hope McCarthy completely ignores it -- or staffs it with members from the Freedom Caucus (Pelosi gave herself veto authority). But here, the real travesty is the notion that an official government body will be delving into why a certain segment of the American citizenry are patriotic, some to the point of being willing to risk their skin to go to Capitol Hill and be placed under the jack boot of federal law enforcement just for carrying signs, flags and wearing Trump campaign apparel.
This is not the time nor place to defend the guilty. If the evidence -- examined in a real judicial forum -- reveals that some of the protesters crossed the line, they will be punished for their crimes. But all of the video footage from January 6 must be released and those who’ve been accused of wrongdoing must be permitted to defend themselves. That’s patriotism, isn’t it? The idea that everyone is innocent until proven guilty?
In the meantime, by accepting a place on Pelosi’s partisan squad of lie-telling cutthroats, Cheney has further tarnished her standing in the Republican Party. There are some actions for which there’s no going back. Liz has already been kicked off the GOP’s house leadership team. She should be stripped of her committee assignments in addition. If indeed McCarthy truly has learned to advocate for his caucus, he’d give Cheney her just medicine. Wyoming’s voters would take care of the rest.
The vast majority of Trump supporters on January 6 were patriotic Americans who probably learned to love their nation and its history the same way I did at a time when people were sane and didn’t think of someone like flag-insulting track athlete Gwen Barry as a hero. Today’s pampered liberals don’t deserve to pass judgment on good people expressing their right to speak out and protest, especially when their own kind did so during the George Floyd protests, riots and mayhem last year.
To most of us, there’s no such thing as being too patriotic. For those who take their zeal to an extreme degree, there are laws to govern the situation. Rep. Liz Cheney isn’t fooling anyone by joining Nancy Pelosi’s partisan witch trial. Perhaps Cheney should realize that those very same inquisitors might be coming for herself -- and soon.
Patriotism
Donald Trump
Pelosi January 6 committee
Liz Cheney
Adam Schiff
Zoe Lofgren
Kevin McCarthy
2020 Election
January 6 riot
2022 primaries