Timely MUST-READ by Robert Reich: RW vs. TRUE (traditional) patriotism

[checks-n-balances]

Althought it's from last month's issue of TAP, this is especially appropriate today as we remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for the good of this country. He makes several interesting points about what true patriotism asks of ALL of us (vs. the neocons' - "radcon" - version):

"A childhood friend of mine, Michael Schwerner, went to Mississippi during the summer of 1964 to register black people to vote. Mickey was in his 20s, brimming with optimism and courage. He was murdered, along with two other civil-rights workers, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney, by racist thugs. What motivated the three of them to participate in "Freedom Summer" was that they loved America enough to risk their lives for it and were determined to help close the gap between American ideals and American practices. Schwerner, Goodman, and Chaney were true patriots.

"But most of all, a truly positive patriotism asks sacrifices of Americans. What should be asked of individual American citizens in a time of emergency such as ours? Radcons don't ask much more than uncritical support for their policies. I listened recently to a radcon radio talk-show host fulminate against liberal "anti-American traitors" who criticize American foreign policy. Within a minute, he was on to another one of his favorite topics: taxes. "It's your money," he thundered, repeating the radcon line we've heard so many times before. "It's not the government's money!" He bloviated on about why it was perfectly OK for citizens to use every tax dodge they could find to avoid paying Uncle Sam.

<snip>

"It's your money? It's your country! If you weasel out of what you owe in taxes, either someone else has to pay more taxes to make up the difference or there's less of what's required -- roads, hospitals, troops, cops, safety inspectors, teachers -- to keep it great.

<snip>

"During World War I, the income-tax rate on the richest Americans rose to 77 percent. During World War II, it was greater than 90 percent. In 1953, with the Cold War raging, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower refused to support a Republican bill to reduce the top rate, then 91 percent. By 1980, the top rate was still at 70 percent. Then Ronald Reagan slashed it to 28 percent. Because Reagan kept spending record sums on the military, the federal deficit ballooned. A few years after that, the Berlin Wall came down, ending the Cold War. We congratulated ourselves -- and then faced the largest budget deficit since World War II.

"Now we're back at war. But instead of raising taxes on the wealthy to pay for it, the radcons want to cut those taxes. Pardon me for asking, but where, exactly, is the patriotism in this?"

(Note: I included that first paragraph in case most of you are like me, and didn't realize that Reich was a friend of Schwerner, the investigation of whose death was dramatized in "Mississippi Burning." And BTW, highlighting is mine.)

Full title of article is Radcon 3: The right-wing trifecta - morality, prosperity, and patriotism - and how to fight it by Robert B. Reich:
http://www.prospect.org/print/V15/5/reich-r.html

Dr. Reich is full of good, old-fashioned ideas of what's right (and ultimately, what's practical) that have been tossed aside by the "radcons."

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. The right has no concept of what true love of country is

that is the truth, sad and unvarnished.

[fdr_hst_fan]

2. The Right-wing

No, but they do have a true love of money, especially someone else's!