Cal Thomas Can Suck My Nuts

This column by Cal Thomas appeared, like a sudden illness, in my morning paper. And it's been grinding away at my soul all day since.

For one, it's amazing that we've come to such a place that it needs pointing out that liberals and conservatives might actually posses patriotism in equivalent amounts. For another that it comes from a man who once proposed a truth and reconciliation commission for people who'd doubted the wisdom of the Iraq War.

But, no, what rankles is the false equivalence. The Republican administration, the conservative political machine, has spent the past decade or more muddying the waters, lowering the level of discourse, and poisoning the well of co-operation. And now, now that the bitter fruits of their harvest are finally coming ripe they're going to start saying, “You know, maybe we were wrong about you filthy hippies. You're not so bad after all. Why, you're almost as patriotic as we are! Our bad”?

Mr. Thomas reaches out the hand of friendship, the hand offering brotherhood and forgiveness. And you know what? Fuck him. I slap it away. You don't get takebacks when you've spent the past six years questioning my patriotism, my commitment to liberty, and underhandedly tarring me and everyone like me with the brush of treason. You don't get to unilaterally declare an armistice in the cultural war you've proclaimed. Not when you've raised the stakes to unconditional surrender.

So, yes, Mr. Thomas is wrong when he writes, “My liberal friends love America as much as I do”. We don't. We love it more. Because we aren't trapped in the symbols and signs, we cherish the ideas and concepts of our founding fathers not the totemic fetish of flag-waving. Because when we hear someone like Mr. Thomas propose a “cultural war crimes tribunal” we chuckle. While Mr. Thomas and his ilk are serious. Because we never asked you to start measuring our patriotism against each others. For these reasons and more.

But, above all, because of things like the comment thread at the above link. Which I hesitated to make because, you know, don't feed the beast. But, no, a quick check and it quickly descended into the same partisan bickering and backstabbing that Mr. Thomas warned about. This is where we've been brought to as a country, as a people. And now you want to turn back the clock? Where were you years ago when making this kind of argument might actually have had an effect? When it might have actually meant something to stand up for these principles before they became drained of all meaning? What were you doing then?

Happy 4th of July.