I’m up late thinking politics after the evening’s events. Specifically I’m thinking about being a patriot, or rather, how proud I am to be an American.
I can identify with Michelle Obama (aside from the slight not-being-a-black-woman-in-America thing). In 2004, I went to a Houston Texans football game. It was the only nationally televised game that year, a Sunday Night game against the Packers. The stadium was probably 1/3 Packer fans. John will be proud to know that the only team I’ve seen approaching that were the Steelers and Saints. At one point, the crowd broke out into a “USA” chant, which morphed into a chant of “Four More Years.” I was shocked into silence. I felt utterly, completely hopeless.
During Obama’s Speech after Iowa, the crowd broke into a chant of “USA.” There was no morphing — not into “O-ba-ma” and certainly not into “Four More Years.” The chant meant something. It stood, on its own. I was, again, shocked at what I saw, and even more at what I was feeling. It felt real. It was hope.
* A few points to keep in mind. I was pulling strongly for Kerry at the time and had spent the last several months locked in futile arguments with my parents concerning Kerry’s vision and my fears over Bush’s. Since they are strong fiscal and national security type conservatives, my argument hinged on Bush’s lack of military and post war foresight and his utter ignorance of fiscal discipline. Their argument consisted of “but Kerry might be worse.” I will say that no one in our section was chanting either platitude.
edmund dantes
Did the the rest of this post get eaten? It kind of ends abruptly.
TR
I had the same conversation with my parents, Tom. They’ve now realized they made the wrong choice in 2004 — have yours?
Elvis Elvisberg
Yeah, I want to know what TR wants to know. If “they are strong fiscal and national security type conservatives,” why would they vote for worse security situation and mammoth deficits?
Equal Opportunity Cynic
Because Kerry might be worse.
Like, for example, if he issued an executive order instructing the Treasury to bring a billion dollars in cold hard cash to the Oval Office each day and toss it into the fireplace. No, wait, that actually wouldn’t waste more money than Bush has managed to do with his war. (It also wouldn’t destroy people’s lives in some far-off Middle Eastern country, but that’s only a concern to lib’ruls.) And it wouldn’t inflame Middle Eastern public opinion and distract the nation from destroying al Qa’eda like Bush’s war has done.
But Kerry’s an effete Massachusetts liberal, and GWB is a rough tough man of the earth, an authentic Texas cowboy who makes me feel good about America not taking shit from anyone. So it’s plain that Kerry would in fact have been worse. QED.
Zifnab
I was at my sister’s high school graduation a few years back, and they were doing the regular nostolgic tromp through the class’s collective history. At one point, the speaker mentioned Clinton becoming President, and a large section of the crowd broke out into spontaneous booing. In the middle of a HS Graduation. The urge to tell a large group of people to STFU already, has never been more powerful.
:p
I totally regret not getting tickets for the Obamarama. At this rate, I think I’m the only political junkie I know who hasn’t seen him speak (missed him in Austin, too!)
stinky mcgee
I live in Texas too. One day in 2004 I was on I-35 on my way to San Antonio from Austin. I had my Kerry/Edwards sticker and my
Wsticker on my rear bumper.Some dude in a pick-up tried to run me off the road. True story.
TheFountainHead
Zif, no worries dude, I still haven’t seen him in the flesh yet either…
Zifnab
At least he’s not charismatic, with a penchant for powerful motivational speaking, and the force of personality to get people geared up for a revolution in domestic policy. Like
HitlerObama.p.lukasiak
The problem with Michele Obama’s statement isn’t that she said the Obama movement made her proud of her country, its that she said it made her proud for the first time
I’m the last person you’ll ever see chanting “USA! USA!”, but even I was proud of this country in the immediate wake of 9-11, when everyone put their differences aside.
And I was proud (with reservations) when Clinton was President.
Michele Obama made a HUGE gaffe, and its the kind of thing that may disappear now because the media prefers to Hillary-bash, but it will come back to haunt the Obama campaign unless she apologizes ASAP, and says that she was carried away by the enthusiasm, etc. etc.
TheFountainHead
Actually, p.luk, as much as you and your right wing cohorts won’t care, she said “really proud” which as far as I’ve studied the English language, leaves open the possibility that she has always been proud of the nation, but in a more tempered, less enthusiastic manner. But whatever, clearly you know that she MEANT to say she hates America. I understand.
Face
Your Bush gov’t in action:
Translation: despite psuedo-democratic elections, the US will still scheme to keep their man in office, elections be dammed. Unreal.
Jen
He must’ve written this before WI….oh wait…no. Huh.
chopper
so i guess back then you weren’t “really proud”, eh?
Jen
I still can’t figure out why the polls are so bad these days. WI was supposed to be a dead heat. I sure hope TX is the same kind of dead heat.
4tehlulz
Only weaklings apologize for things they didn’t say.
RSA
Something really obvious and trivial just struck me today, that if Obama’s elected, he’ll be the first President to have a last name that comes from somewhere other than northern Europe or the British Isles. (VP names are comparable.)
Gus
My pride in my country post-9/11 was tempered by the Muslim bashing, and the knee-jerk jingoism that had them playing, yes, Lee Greenwood at the seventh inning stretch at Twins games. I had no particular pride in America during the Clinton years. They were characterized by the same kind of greed that defined the ’80s as some people made millions on the tech bubble and others lost their asses.
Billy K
Polls are grounded in reality. The MUP does not suffer from that affliction.
I have a feeling it will be. (Maybe not double digits, though.) Come on Texas, make me (really) proud!
jnfr
It’s pretty amusing watching the oh-so-high-strung Cindy McPercoset come out and declare that she, at least, has always been proud of her country.
No doubt she was especially proud as she was stealing drugs from her own non-profit health organization.
ThymeZone
We have a president who can’t say his name without uttering some kind of grotesque gaffe.
Verbal gaffes in front of crowds are really not something that this country seems to care much about.
A slight diction gaffe, versus Bomb Bomb Iran, a judgement gaffe on a world war scale?
Er, I mean, a candidate’s wife’s pretty meaningless verbal gaffe, versus a moral and intellectual gaffe by an experienced military expert candidate?
I can’t believe the nonsense that passes for commentary during this primary season.
Let’s have a contest that is entirely based on gaffes. Really. I like our chances.
charles
Whenever I hear people start to chant “U-S-A” I get embarassed for my country. It just seems kind of childish.
Garrigus Carraig
Do other countries have this whole “pride in country” thing? Are Norwegians proud to be Norwegian? Are Sami in Norway expected to be proud to be Norwegian? It sounds like it’s just flag-waving. I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect Black people to be “proud to be American”.
Davis X. Machina
It all makes sense if you take a machine-readable copy of the Federalist Papers — the Gutenberg Project is good for such things — and do a search -and-replace. Replace evey reference to ‘faction’ with ‘team’
If “they are strong fiscal and national security type conservatives,” why would they vote for worse security situation and mammoth deficits?
Because the alternative is gays getting married, gun confiscation, the criminalization of Christianity, and colored people getting your money, that you earned. (Thanks to S. Colbert.)
Or at least that’s what my dad tells me.
bootlegger
I was in Germany for the World Cup and got a free scarf with the German flag on it. I wore it to watch the German team play in the little town I was staying in and my German friends started booing me when they saw it. I was totally perplexed and they explained that only right-wing nationalists displayed the flag, much less wrapped themselves in it.
Now these people are fiercely proud about the kinds of their country can do, but they also know their history and their are many things for which they are not proud.
As it turned out the whole experience of backing the German soccer team, who did much better than anyone there expected, led to regular Germans taking the flag symbol back from the right-wing and displaying it with pride.
Bottom line, they were “proud” of their flag for the first time in their adult lives. I went home and bought a flag and hung it on my house during holidays, right above my car with the anti-war, pro-gay and pro-secular bumper stickers. I figured if the Germans could take back their flag and be proud in it, so could I.
Oh, one other story about my German friends. At the University of Arizona I took some to a football game. They were absolutely blown away by the size of the crowd. There were also completely freaked out when we sang the national anthem. Apparently such displays of nationalism are culturally verboten over there.
Andrew
I’m off to have a recreational abortion. Call me later.
Bob In Pacifica
Whenever see the name “Lee Greenwood” I think of the late, great Lee Hazelwood, who wrote such great songs as “Sugar Town,” “These Boots Are Made For Walkin'”, and one of the most bizarre songs of all time “Some Velvet Morning,” as well as “Houston” (Dean Martin). He also did some cowriting and coproducing with the deep reverb sound of Duane Eddy (“Rebel Rouser,” “Peter Gunn Theme”). Hazelwood was a “unique” artist himself. I have a CD based on a documentary made about him in Europe, something like “a cowboy in in Sweden.” Sometimes I wonder how different things would be if he had teamed up with ABBA.
chopper
guess not. oh, the america-hating! oh, the humanity!
tBone
Maybe you and Michelle Obama should get married since you both hate America so much, you America-hating America-hater.
Andrew
Maybe I will!/buster
RSA
I bet when the time comes for everyone to bow their head in a moment of prayer, you’re looking around. Am I right?
p.lukasiak
Actually, p.luk, as much as you and your right wing cohorts won’t care, she said “really proud” which as far as I’ve studied the English language, leaves open the possibility that she has always been proud of the nation, but in a more tempered, less enthusiastic manner. But whatever, clearly you know that she MEANT to say she hates America. I understand.
Fountainhead… did it really matter what Bill Clinton actually said about Obama’s record on Iraq? Did it really matter what Hillary actually said about MLK?
People seem to think I was attacking Michele Obama — I wasn’t. What she said was a “gaffe” and that is how I describe it, and the best way to deal with a “gaffe” is to apologize for saying something you didn’t mean, and move on.
Let me put it this way… I think that the right-wing smear machine is gearing up to turn Michele Obama into the second-coming of Hillary Clinton. This statement will just add one more log to the pyre they’re building for her…
Grumpy Code Monkey
Getting the bride’s name wrong in a wedding toast is a gaffe. Saying “we start bombing in five minutes” into a live mike is a gaffe.
Honestly expressing your feelings about your nation is not a gaffe. I haven’t felt “really proud” of my nation either in my adult life; we’re shallow, greedy, materialistic, provincial, grossly unaware of the impact we have on the rest of the world, and show little inclination to change. Why should I feel pride in a nation that, up until recently, cast more votes in a singing competition than in real elections? Why should I feel pride in a nation that apparently values ignorance and superstition over science and reason?
I don’t hate my country; I’m not anxious to emigrate; there are plenty of things to like about living in America.
I just can’t point to anything this nation has done in the last 25 years that makes me feel really good about it. Minor accomplishments here and there, sure, but nothing that really shows us at our best.
Michelle Obama has absolutely nothing to apologize for.