On last week’s “America Live,” guest-host Alisyn Camerota discussed how “some folks” noticed that the “famous flag-styled outfits” of Olympics past were replaced by “yellow shirts, grey track suits and pink leotards” at the London games. Camerota and her guest, Sirius/XM radio host David Webb, took particular focus on Douglas’ outfit.
“You know, Gabby had that great moment, and everyone was so excited, and she’s in hot pink — and that’s her prerogative,” Camerota said. Webb, who hosts a program on Sirius/XM’s “Patriot” channel, wondered, “What’s wrong with showing some pride?” He likened the uniform choice to a “kind of soft anti-American feeling that Americans can’t show their exceptionalism.” Camerota pointed out how other nations, like China, wore nationalistic colors.
“We’re a very nationalistic nation,” Webb said of America. “But we’ve also lost over time that jingoistic feeling.”
I’m not sure that losing our “jingoistic feeling” is a bad thing, considering jingoism really isn’t a good thing. Patriotism is great….jingoism not so much.
American Exceptionalism. Stalin’s terminology, most emblematic currently of the Neoconservative Superiority Complex infused with Evangelical Manifest Destiny. Not the Patriotic humility expressed by the Enlightened Founders of this country.
Nationalism. The idea embodied by right wing modernism – Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini. Totalitarian, Authoritarian, and Expansionistic Imperialism. Not the founding ideals of liberty and equality. Not the ideals which inspired “the empire of liberty.”
Neoliberals and Neoconservatives alike embrace these fundamentally UnPatriotic and UnAmerican ideals. But Conservative Radicals push the envelope to the extreme that patriotism is distended so thin it can only be apprehended superficially – a hallmark of Conservative Extremism.
Were these Conservative Exceptionalists true patriots they would know that according to U.S. code and flag etiquette: “No part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic uniform.” Flag patches attached to official uniforms – police force, fire fighters, or military is acceptable. Yet again, Fox advocating for the pro-ignorant and no-information angle in their commentary.
Stalin-Marxist
Hitler-Socialist
Mussolini-Socialist
Lefties all.
Pledge of Allegiance in schools- written by american communist (look it up).
The problem is with sheep begging to be led, and happiest when all dressed alike and chanting alike.
What’s needed is liberty, not dependency.
Both R and D have been pushing dependency for many election cycles- it’s crack the voters want. And their getting it good and hard.
rtfq:
Nice try with the historical revisionism, but all the above were right wing authoritarian nationalists. Mussolini was a fascist opposed to Marxism, and in terms not unlike those you are using now; The Bolshevik Revolution was inspired by Marxist ideas but Stalin was never a Marxist. After Lenin’s death the Communist Party factionalized and Stalin was squarely at the rightist end of it – with the nationalists. Marx and Engels were internationalists, not nationalists; they also opposed absolutism – i.e. a solitary political leader. The rise of Nazism occurred through the coalescing of the Conservative elements in Germany, particularly in the Reichstag, and Hitler murdered any “leftist” elements in the party during the Rohm-Putsch in 1934. After the Enabling Act he banned all “leftist” political parties. The Nazi Party’s National Socialism was not Marxist, it rejected the Marxist notions of class conflict, the authority of labor over production, Nazism did not repudiate capitalism, and it was an example of extreme nationalism.
Socialism is not confined to the left. Collectivism is not synonymous with uniformity and collectivization is not confined to socialism. Socialism is not incompatible with Democracy. Those are some nice little boxes where you’ve trapped those ideas in, but they don’t quite fit the historical realities.
Longing for liberty? Liberate your mind from the disinformation inhabiting it. Concerned about dependency? Recognize that Capitalism is not Democracy, and that the Capitalism we have now is incompatible with a Republican Form of Government.
PATRIOTISM, n. Combustible rubbish read to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name. In Dr. Johnson’s famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first.
-Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary” 1911
Agreed on the jingoism – though I think it’s not too hard to draw a line can between that & rooting for your home country in sports events. Just like there’s a difference between being a fan & a fanatic. Wanting your team to win does not require a lack of respect for other competitors.
I do have to say that I happen to agree with the uniforms thing though. I wouldn’t begin to speculate on the motives – I’m willing to just assume somebody just when with what they thought “looked cool.” But I think uniforms should convey the colors & symbols of the team they represent. If my Badgers took the field in maize & blue or the Packers lined up wearing purple, I’d be similarly disappointed.
I wonder if the bobbleheads at Faux happened to observe what the ladies wore last night. My guess is that they would wail about how the flag was depicted on their jumpers.
The rest of her team was wearing exactly the same thing. So the real question is, why did they single her out?