Taking Back the Word "Patriot" From Those Who Shat on It [View all]

[Tortmaster]

Back on June 4--a political lifetime ago--I wrote the following about Donald Trump and what's become of the Republican party:

We should think hard about co-opting a word that has been stolen and besmirched by Republicans. Anyone who stands up to Trump should be called a "Patriot." Hillary Clinton? Patriot. Bernie Sanders? Patriot. Barack Obama. Patriot. Marco Rubio? Traitor. Jake Tapper? Patriot.

This was in response to a thread started about Jake Tapper asking Trump 24 or so times if he was being racist with his pronouncements about the Judge in the Trump University case. Now, Tapper will have to continue to ask the hard questions of Trump and Republicans to keep "patriot" status, but anyone who attacks Trump and his brand of racism, misogyny and bigotry deserves some form of gold star.

For too long that word has been polluted by the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.



When I see something like that I want to puke. Then, I think of trying to eat an omelet in the presence of Sean Hannity, and I want to puke again. Republicans have used that word to define bigotry, misogyny, greed, racism, xenophobia, anti-science beliefs, anti-intellectualism, warmongering and unconstitutional actions. Now that boil is coming to a head.

Leave it to President Obama to show us the way. In his just-released endorsement of Secretary Clinton and commendation of Senator Sanders, he used a special word to describe those two:

In the video, President Obama re-purposed the word "patriot" to mean "a person who vigorously supports their country." I think he knew what he was doing: