I had intended to make this point in the previous post, but the opening did not appear.
Patriot, as best I can determine, has the root of pater, or Father. In the original Greek it seems to have connoted something like “an order of the fathers/men.”
I think there is an effort by all people in power, in any complex system, to be seen as parents. In patriarchal orders, which is pretty much all of them in the modern world, this is the father.
Does this not then make all those governed children? I would argue it does.
And if we want to make government the all nurturing Mother (in principle obviously, because impossible in reality) then our attachment to the governmental teat needs to be called Matriotism.
The precise structure of our Constitution was intended to explicitly remove this sort of thing from our world. Your business is your own business. Your family is your family. Your community is your community. Although different, with differing ideas on all topics, we will meet in a public space–a Res Publica–and negotiate as adults. No person in Washington or anywhere else is going to infantilize you.
And obviously the balancing consideration is that we are all free to rise or fall on our own. No omnipresent father or mother from the government is going to pick you up. That is for your friends and family, neighbors and community to do.
Our system was founded based on the idea of mature adult individuation. It was founded as a “Republic of Virtue”, which I think is a quote from one of the–what do we call them?–the Founding Fathers.
And that term is not entirely incorrect. They fathered a radically new form of government which recognized and codified in law ITS OWN LIMITS.
Here is a simple heuristic: the fascists are the ones who want more control over your life, your thoughts, your speech. Period.
The Liberals are the ones who emphasize choice and freedom.
In our current landscape, to my mind it is very, very obvious who is who. It’s not complicated.
And since I brought up choice, the relevant choice with regard to abortion is WHO GETS TO DECIDE IF IT IS RIGHT OR WRONG. Is it the national government, or the States? You can still murder a full term baby in Oregon. It’s still legal.
(I can’t resist sharing this on point commentary by Bill Burr, which I understand has gone viral for the right reasons: https://twitter.com/LegendaryEnergy/status/1550181134658637827
Allan Bloom commented back in the 1980’s that we need to understand that deep moral issues are NOT SIMPLE. They need to be wrestled with, and considered with appropriate seriousness. We have not come close to doing that in the public space with respect to abortion.)
One last point: left wing lunatics who have been burning flags for a half century suddenly found a love for patriotism and a hatred of “treason” and insurrection. Why?
Simple: they are attached to THIS government, to a government run by THEIR people, in a purely tribal and unjust way, and are appropriating a rhetoric they KNOW resonates with normal Americans, but which they invoke purely for tactical political purposes.
Our soldiers swear an oath to protect and defend the CONSTITUTION, not to protect and defend the person and people who happen (in this case through massive and obvious fraud) to be in charge.
The loyalty most normal Americans feel is to the PRINCIPLES they see when they see a flag. Equal justice for all. Liberty for all. Transparency and limitations for the government.