Comments on: What “Patriotism” Means to Republicans

By: Ian

Ian — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 21:28:50 +0000

I don’t agree that Severin says what he says to get a rise out of the left. Very few people on the left listen to Severin, and Severin is almost never discussed in the right-wing media. Severin’s audience is predominantly right-wing, and Severin’s purpose, I believe, is to sell his ideas to the right-wingers that listen to him. It may be that many of his listeners enjoy repeating his rhetoric to their left-wing friends to get a rise out of them — but this is because his listeners resent the left and like the idea of antagonizing the left. Severin is an entertaining shock jock, but he is taken seriously by many of the people who listen to him. I honestly see him as a legitimate leader of the Republican Party in New England, in the same way that Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are leaders of the Republican Party nationally. But Severin is small-time enough to fall below the national media’s radar (although he was mentioned on Olbermann’s show once), which means Severin can say things that many Republicans believe but don’t say out of “political correctness.” Republicans want very much to say that Colin Powell is putting his own career and his race ahead of his country — and they rely on second-tier voices like Severin to deliver these talking points to rank-and-file conservatives. I think our political conversation needs to be less about what Republican Congressmen and Senators and official spokespeople are saying — and more about what people like Severin are saying, since the Severins of the world have far more influence. If you look at the percentage of Americans who’ve thought Iraq was responsible for 9/11, or thought Obama was a Muslim, or thought there was real debate within the scientific community about whether the causes of global warming are man-made, the only explanation is that Severin and people like him hold major sway.

By: John

John — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:55:33 +0000

I don’t think Severin is unpatriotic, this is just his schtick. He’s a clever speaker who knows that such buzz words will get a rise out of the left.

By: Ian

Ian — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:57:06 +0000

I am torn between a desire to call Severin unpatriotic and a sense that he may just be misguided. But if we get to a point where the centrist says both sides accuse the other of being unpatriotic, then we’ve made progress in the sense that the word no longer has any real power — it’s just a word of mindless partisan rhetoric at that point. As for unprovable assertions, I’m afraid that if the left limited itself to making provable assertions and the right kept on going as it is — lying shamelessly — Dems would lose every time. Uprovable assertions — accusations — are a part of politics. Perhaps, for the sake of the long-term, we should hold ourselves to a higher standard than the people responsible for our national political discourse, but right now I’m more concerned with preventing Republicans from ruining my country.

By: John

John — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:41:56 +0000

Well Sarah Palin said the classic non-apology. I think the danger is engaging in it. Instead, as a certain state senator said in Boston in 2004, I think it is necessary to just reaffirm you Americanness. And acknowledge that we can have honest differences on issues but your Americaniness is never in doubt. Refuse the redefination of the word use patriot for what it means not what some minority claims.

By: Lee

Lee — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 08:37:07 +0000

I think there is a significant risk if liberals feel the need to express their patriotism while secretly understanding that the patriotism they're affirming is the sort of right-wing, exclusionary patriotism you describe.

The risk is that by implicitly accepting such a skewed framework of patriotism -- and assuming that to admit that you are patriotic one is also to say something you do not really believe in -- you prevent yourself from expressing your true opinions at a time of crisis. In other words, if being a patriot is to say "my country, right or wrong," then you prevent yourself from standing up to the next hideously destructive, unnecessary, unjustified Iraq-like war every time you affirm your patriotism.

So I very much appreciate your effort to reclaim the word patriotism from the far right. The question your posting leaves me with is: according to your definition of patriotism, is Severin unpatriotic? Is he a misguided patriot?

Do we run the risk of making unprovable assertations if we adopt a language of patriotism? I mean, who decides who is patriotic and who is not? How would you respond to someone who says, "The right thinks the left is unpatriotic and the left thinks the right is unpatriotic; I, as a wise centrist, understand that both sides are equally biased against each other"?