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Saturday, August 20, 2005

Why do Conservatives Hate America?

I just wanted to post a link, found via Buzzflash. Here 'tis, a story about the mayor of Salt Lake City calling for massive protests when Bush comes to town. Of course, certain people were offended and attacked his patriotism. Here was the mayor's response:

"Patriotism," the mayor said, "demands that people speak out when we see our government officials acting in such anti-democratic and deceitful ways to the people of our country." He also said: "I don't understand people simply blindly going along with the sort of deceit and utter cruelty of this administration. It's not just we have the right to speak out, but we have the obligation to speak out when we see misconduct on the part of the government. The most patriotic thing we can do is stand up against the misuse of governmental power."

This reminded me of a quote from (republican) President Theodore Roosevelt (which I've posted before, but it's worth repeating):

"The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."

Roosevelt, published in the Kansas City Star
May 7, 1918

That's it for now. I shall return.

posted by Skrambled Egghead Reborn @ 1:54 PM

2 Comments:

-if you could see me right now, i'd be clapping-

it's so amazing the more religious our presidents are, the less they seem to believe in personal responsiblity.

however, what does not surprise me is that the more catholic they are the less democratic (for i truely believe that the only true democracy existed in greece, but anyways, one of the foundations of a republic/democracy is the duty and freedom to know what your leaders are doing and speak for or against it - without knowledge there is no freedom).

Afterall, the catholic religion is headed by a monarch apointed by a small group of people and is said to bring the voice of God to his people - hmmm....

By Blogger mysfit, at 11:20 AM  

Yeah, I'm one of those people who frequently say that I was "raised Catholic." Anytime someone uses this phrase, you know that they have become disenchanted with the church that helped raise them.

I think the political power of the Catholic church is the exact opposite of what Jesus stood for. They are on the right side of some issues though, such as war and peace.

By Blogger Skrambled Egghead Reborn, at 7:17 PM  

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