The Party of Patriots

In 1960, the soon to be elected first Catholic President appeared before a convention of Protestant ministers to assure them that he was not an agent of the Vatican. The fact that he was a decorated war hero or that the first two medal of honor winners in WWII had been Roman Catholic was not sufficient to assure the self appointed gate keepers of American Protestant patriotism that a Catholic could serve as President. For Catholics watching this spectacle the experience was a humiliating one.

President Obama has suffered a similar indignity. Putting aside the nonsense of the birther movement that questions his citizenship (a movement that encompasses some 18% of Republican voters) or the equally nonsensical view that he has Muslim sympathies or is, himself, a Muslim ( a more significant 38% of Republican voters), Obama has been subject to a barrage of accustions regarding his "Americanism." His Health care reform has been labeled "socialist." As has his financial reform legislation. This is a familiar theme for patriotic opponents. One is reminded of the charges of Socialism and Bolshavism leveled at FDR's Social Security legislation in the 30s. (What is it about these Harvard educated  presidents?) Even a "good ol boy" of the South like Lyndon Johnson was charged with Socialist tendencies when he passed the Medicare Bill.
This latter charge disappeared from view when another Southerner GW Bush proposed and passed the largest extension of Medicare Benefits. It seems only Democrats aree Socialists or Communists or un-American.

It is fair to say that the Republican Party has captured the language of Patriotism over the past eighty years and used it with mixed results in its oppositon to democratic candidates and policies. The Republican Vice Presidential candidate in 2008 repeated a popular refrain in  speech after speech that Obama hangs around with "terrorists." Obama got 62 million votes in winning the election. One can only imagine what patriots would  have said had he been president for nine months when a devasting 9-11  like attack took place. The country rallied around President Bush after 9/11 but it is doubtful a similar show of unity would have been granted Obama.

The problem with such consistent use of Patriotism to hammer political opponents is that it invites the charge of insincerity and, in fact, cheapens the genuine virtues of patriotism, A similar case can be made about the language of Christianity but more about this later.