The Partisan Divide on Issues

[Classic-Xer]

(01-14-2020, 01:48 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: I had a number of revolutionary war soldiers in my ancestry, and at least one civil war soldier. I am related distantly to Abe Lincoln. I don't know of any political leaders of those years in my ancestry. Most of my lines came to America from Britain in the 17th century; some German lines in the 1850s. Some French and Dutch earlier. None more recent. So I am an "American."

I noticed that the slogans and banting about of the word "American" became very prominent among those who opposed the protests to the Vietnam War. An "American Independent" party came into being in 1968 led by George Wallace spouting the slogan "Stand Up for America!" and he chose a militant general Le May as his running mate who advocated dropping nucs on Vietnam. In the next election much of that party became the "American" party and is now known as the "Constitution" party, although in CA the name "American Independent" stuck and is still used today. It has usually run third party candidates resembling Wallace, but in 2016 it endorsed Trump, whose policies were identical with theirs.

These are your predecessors in the use of the slogan "we are the Americans" and us liberals are not, because these conservative "Americans" thought we liberals should not have protested the war. We thought that it was better for us to have our country do the right thing, instead of pursuing wanton mass killing in the hopes that we could kill more Vietnamese than the communist regime could resupply themselves with. They said instead that it's "our country right or wrong" and "love it or leave it." We loved America; that's why we wanted it to correct course and stop sending young, courageous, excellent boomer soldiers home in body bags for a mistake.


The slogan has stuck among folks like you. The great divide in our country today descends from those great debates in the late 1960s. You "Americans" believe we should respect and stick with traditional values like "free enterprise" and Christianity and oppose reform efforts like gun control because of the "right" to bear arms in the constitution as you interpret it. We liberals continue to believe that true patriotism consists of reforming traditional ways so our society works better for all, and that "free enterprise" slogans boost the power of the wealthy bosses to exploit the people and harm life. 

We liberal patriots have a progressive tradition that goes back to the founding of the country, when WE were the ones who rose up for freedom, not YOU. WE were the real Americans then too, while the conservative Tories fled the country and preferred the tradition of being English colonists. The progressives were the ones who opposed slavery and achieved victory in the civil war, while you "Americans" rebelled and seceded from America. We progressives were the ones who in the 1900s passed the first laws to restrain and break up the power of the bosses, which today you "Americans" want to reimpose upon us. We liberal progressives were the ones that reformed the economic system to restrain speculation by the financiers that created the depression, and WE progressives created social security and boosted unions and passed other programs to protect the people from the bosses that you today support. WE progressives fought and stood up for the rights of all Americans in the sixties, while you "Americans" wanted to preserve segregation and discrimination, and you still do.

I assume that you (like me) weren't around when our ancestors rose up for freedom.  As far as Vietnam, I wasn't old enough to directly participate in the war or do anything about it either. So, I had nothing to do with the Vietnam War itself. I do remember seeing the fall of Saigon and the final evacuation of the US embassy. However, I did have the benefit of being able to learn more about it in greater detail after the war ended.

I have to say the "Baby Killer" folks and seeing sexy Jane Fonda playing around with North Vietnamese soldiers while sitting on an anti-aircraft and the liberal professors who latched on and used their propaganda here and their continuation with promoting/reinforcement of Marxist ideology to this day has pretty much burned a bridge with half the country. Now, is any of that our problem, or is a liberal Democratic problem that still lingers and hampering them today. Unfortunately, it's the half of the country that liberal Democrats may need to bail them out or save their asses some day who are more likely to watch and do nothing as Rome (so called liberal America) crumbles and burns so to speak.

You know what I don't like about you Bob, you accuse me of demonizing and then preach to me about the value of not demonizing and then you ignore it as it pertains to yourself and start demonizing us again. Bob, I think its in your nature to do that these days. Unfortunately, it's in my nature to either take you to task and teach you a lesson about doing it real life or basically move towards driving nails in your coffin and filling in the grave that yo have already dug for yourself. It's up to you dude. My sentimental or essential attachment to you is none at this point. Right now, it's just a matter of Democrats doing it or us doing it and that largely depends on what the Democrats do during the upcoming election.