Didn't you guys go to the Fourth of July fireworks when you were a kid?

[lostnfound]

Last edited Tue Jul 30, 2019, 12:15 PM - Edit history (2)

To the GOP Base:

Didn’t you guys go to the Fourth of July fireworks when you were a kid?
Did you stand and pledge allegiance in grade school?
You older ones, that watch Fox news and voted for Trump, did you take civics class?
Did you get a passing grade??

Did you watch Mayberry RFD, Bonanza, My Three Sons, Leave It to Beaver, Little House on the Prairie, or any of the other shows that contained occasional little lessons on treating people with kindness? Especially kids...

You learned about the American Revolution, about the pride and importance of freeing ourselves from the control of a tyrant, at least five or six times during Grades 1 through 12.

In your history books, was it the Soviet Union that gave us the Statue of Liberty? Was it the government of France that funded the hijackers of 9-11? Did Lincoln build a giant wall to separate the North and South at the conclusion of the Civil War? I’m pretty sure that wasn’t the history you learned.

So what happened? When did you get so gullible? When did you get so, um, UNPATRIOTIC? The guy in the White House that you elected is going to sell nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia. The Russians have compromising information on him, which he lies about everyday. Do you know that the city of Baltimore is an AMERICAN city?

Did you ever hear that the U.S. was a great MELTING POT? Back in 1976, was the bicentennial some kind of day of mourning? Or was it a day to celebrate? How could you not get it?

Did you ever listen to Neil Diamond’s song “America”? How could you NOT be moved by these lyrics? Don’t you have a dreamer’s bone left in your body? Who is it you want to throw overboard from this mighty boat? Why do you want to diminish us?

Far
We've been traveling far
Without a home
But not without a star
Free
Only want to be free
We huddle close
Hang on to a dream
On the boats and on the planes
They're coming to America
Never looking back again
They're coming to America
Home, don't it seem so far away
Oh, we're traveling light today
In the eye of the storm
In the eye of the storm
Home, to a new and a shiny place
Make our bed, and we'll say our grace
Freedom's light burning warm
Freedom's light burning warm
Everywhere around the world
They're coming to America
Every time that flag's unfurled
They're coming to America
Got a dream to take them there
They're coming to America
Got a dream they've come to share
They're coming to America
They're coming to America
They're coming to America
They're coming to America
They're coming to America
Today, today, today, today, today
My country 'tis of thee
Today
Sweet land of liberty
Today
Of thee I sing
Today
Of thee I sing
Today

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Neil Diamond
America lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

[rurallib]

1. The video for those like me who love this song

and get all choked up thinking of those who leave their homes on a promise of freedom:

[lostnfound]

9. Thank you!

Land of Liberty.
They’re coming to America...

[CMYK]

2. Excellent

I regret that I have but one k & r to give!

[Javaman]

3. you give the general American public way to much credit.

the only difference now as opposed to then is the internet.

that gave every fucking nut job halfwit, who used to write into the editor to complain about this weeks tinfoil hat theory, a weaponized platform to spout on about their special brand of stupidity to other like minded morons.

[lostnfound]

7. Which has made the nitwits multiply...

So strange, too, how the Internet was a beacon of hope as a democratizing and educating force in the world.

The older I get the more astonished I am at how my initial beliefs can be so wrong.

[Javaman]

8. I wish I could find this amazing article I read about 6 months ago...

it tracked the rise of hate groups and insane conspiracy theory nut jobs directly to the expanse of the internet.

from what I recall, everything really got crazy around 2011-2013.

That's roughly when the use of the internet as a means of communication went viral.

[Hortensis]

4. Did YOU at least, I hope, post this on RW forums?

Surely you're not accusing Democrats, our nation's bastion of liberal democracy, of becoming unpatriotic?

Please watch out for that insidious, conviction-destroying "you." We are not them.

[marked50]

5. Agree with this. The OP appears to be targeting those that would not be in this group--DU rocks.

[lostnfound]

6. Obviously not directed AT DU. Sharing the ongoing shock I feel and running inner dialog

I don’t have the nerve to direct this at right wingers, but maybe other people here can use it.
I think we need a campaign ad in the general election with this song as a theme.

[Hortensis]

10. False equivalencies are probably the #1 insidious weapon

used to subvert elections. ALL of them are directed at Democrats, independents, and wobbly, worried conservatives with the specific intention of subverting any belief that one of the parties, ours, genuinely seeks to represent the people and offers them a principled, decent and competent choice.

[lostnfound]

11. Agreed. The gap between the parties is so huge, I don't know how anyone can equate them

Yet somehow there are a lot of talking heads on tv that manage to do it.

I was 100% NOT directing the OP at Democrats. I don’t understand how the GOP got SO traitorous. Greed is one thing, but for the GOP politicians, it has risen to a level of selling their souls, their country, their families and their ancestors down the river.

For the GOP base? What happened to the last shred of patriotism?

[Hortensis]

12. :) I'm sure you weren't. We're all wondering what on earth

happened to them. Even fake patriotism got lost in the need to defeat evil liberalism/Democrats?

The debased RW base are intensely loyal to those they see as their own, but I no longer believe that the noisy "America, love it or leave it" patriotism that was so common when I was young was ever real. Patriotism needs to be based on a reality-based understanding of what one is loyal to. The hard right has fairly recently been forced to see that the nation is frighteningly and appallingly different in every possible way from an Ozzie and Harriet nation that white, mainly Christian, conservatives like them overwhelmingly dominated. These people never loved the real America.

I'm only able to sleep without getting a prescription for something (or more likely giving up paying attention!) because that does leave other conservatives who grew up comfortable with a diverse nation, even if massive agitprop from both right and left has been weakening confidence in it. Analysts say large numbers are concerned and unhappy about what's happening to their country. A critical minority of those even changed their voting in the midterms, and Trump and the Republican leadership are still acting more un-American every month...