Friday, August 29, 2008
Country First?
That's the slogan McCain's got front and center on the lectern he's speaking in front of. After Barack Obama specifically blasted McCain's attack on his patriotism, this is an interesting double down. There is no doubt now that McCain is deliberately trying to play the patriotism card against Obama -- a low blow, and one that I think will end up backfiring against him.
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Hmm. Is it possible to say someone is self-centered without accusing them of being patriotic?
For myself, I would prefer to see McCain prioritize American values -- especially as embedded in the Constitution -- over the more physical concept of our Country. The claimed need to defend American safety against exterior threat has the U.S. government using the same methods I'm now finding described in Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago and debating the suspension of habeas. "Country First" is the kind of slogan that makes me foresee further slippage in his anti-torture position.
Sacrificing yourself for your country is admirable; sacrificing others is much less so. Reading about the Soviet Union reminds me that the highest service is not in following the Leader's orders nor even in holding the line against the Nazis, but in being willing to speak up against wrongdoing despite the risk to self for doing so.
Unfortunately values have very limited weight unless anchored to the concrete of a country. Yes you can point to a variety of values, concepts, cultural attributes that began without a country but few if any have flourished without a country. And those values without a country can easily be erased over time.
As for sacrifice, sacrificing for one's country for Americans is not the goal, however honorable it may be, but having the enemy sacrificing his life is the goal.
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