And so what is true patriotism?

Question

I'd hate to make generalizations but this is getting ridiculus.
The people who say they are the ONLY patriots claim universal healthcare is an evil.
The biggest arguement I've heard is that it'll 'cost too much of taxpayers dollars'.
So contibuting a little to a government that - in the global grand scheme of things - asks little of us citizens doesn't count as patriotism? So spending a little extra TO A GOVERNMENT YOU CAN FREELY PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO doesn't count as patriotism? Come on. What's wrong with saving lives,limbs, and houses?
I do recall that the CONSTITUTION says something about the rights to life, liberty, and property that should only be taken be due process, NOT by poverty.

This is a matter of loving fellow human beings, not of a liberal-conservative fight.

And so let us make this TRULY one of the greatest countries. Let us set a precedent and example to other countries:

We can make quality, free health care.
I know we can do it.
We did it with the military, not just in terms of health care but in many more aspects such as technology. If we can have a fleet of $1 billion each B-2 Spirits, and not to mention the spanking brand new new fleets F-22 Raptors and the F-35s JFs, we can easily afford universal health care.

So where's that famous "We can make it bigger, badder, and faster" attitude from the conservatives?
This is the perfect time for this perpective, from both conservatives and liberals.This is a call to out real power as a people, and let's do something spectacular. Like we always should.

Mission:
You put a lot of effort and all, but I think you're in the wrong question.

This isn't about Clinton.
This is about us as citizens.

Answer 1

This government props patriotism up to a point where questioning the motives of it can cause you to be labeled "unamerican". Universal health care is something every single person in this country would benefit from, however as with anything that would conflict with corporate interests we see a smear campaign against it. Large companys would lose money, so of course we don't have it. I have also noticed a perception among the rich that they are above others. To them the rest of us don't deserve the health care that they have, even if that feeling is deep down inside it does exist. I don't believe in patriotism, but if anything is patriotic it would be helping fellow americans to live healthy and full lives.

Answer 2

Well you asked for it; I am a patriot! I served for over 20 years in the USAF and retired from the same. I was sent to the Mid-East shortly after Sept 11th. I have fought for this great county in ways you will never understand, and seen people die for this county that I hope nobody will every have to see. This great county for which I served and have seen brethren fall for was not; nor should ever be socialized. This is exactly what universal health care is. England, Canada, and I believe Cuba have such health care. Every year thousands flock to the good old USA to pay for our Health Care because their Universal care can not or will not help them. There is no County in the World right now with better heath care that the US. That is why both Doctors and the sick come here to learn and be cured. This wealth of knowledge and of patient care was not paid for by socialized government medical programs; but by good old free enterprise. Let Sicko Michael Moore go to Cuba for his health care.
Sorry went on a tangent there, anyway what more do you want in our health care system? There are both free clinics and service run charities that provide heath care for the down trodden. We also have medicare and Medicaid for our poor and elderly. They have the same access to health care as the ones working to provide their coverage.

Answer 3

See your right - in part patriotism is asking the hard questions. The questions you believe would help your fellow americans. This country is a melting pot so it is natural for everyone to have different beliefs. The next part (and frankly the most important) of partriotism is the ACTION. If you truely believe that this is the way for the people than it is your patriotic duty to promote it. However - you won't promote it justly if you do not gather your thoughts FROM ALL PERSPECTIVES.
My personal position is simple - its going to inconviance me. I don't want to have the patience to wait in a rediculously long line for medical care. I like paying for this convieniance. I know there are people that don't have it, but to be honest you can't be refused for care. (I'm not dumb I am aware of the drastic difference between people with it and without it. But our country is based on capitalism - money and incentives always rule out in the end).

Answer 4

I never said the pledge of alliegence throughout grade school, and people told me that was unpatriotic. lol

I would think that true patriotism would be to care more about our citizens in regards to their welfare than supporting a government who rarely does anything to help with poverty. I find it hilarious and disgusting that these people claim we're the greatest country in the world, yet we have people who get angry at those who are poor.

I think the universal health-care proposal is a very patriotic bill, asi t would be beneficial to our country. When the average person is unable to get a job that doesn't pay a living wage (heck, when people start thinking that /minimum/ wage equates to a living wage), that's when I find people getting to be unpatriootic. We should care more about eliminating poverty in our cities than we should about whether or not someone blindly supports the person in charge of our country. D:

I didn't explain that very well, and I'm sorry.

Answer 5

i assume "real patriots" might desire to marry people who're "proud" of the rustic for the 1st time. Or have preachers that publicly say"God rattling u.s.". Or people who blow up government homes in protest. And to suitable it off in case you're able to desire to conceal at the back of your epidermis shade so as to suppress any and all grievance. that's what I call real Patriotism. I say vote Obama Hussein for a real patriot. McCain isn't one via fact he hid in Vietnam at a similar time as all the different hippies have been given extreme. What replaced into he doing over on the Hanoi Hilton besides. He might desire to hate this usa via fact if he did no longer he'd have come back and befriended mr Ayers too.

Answer 6

Hillary Clinton incontestably spoke the truth about the Iraq war this past February at the annual meeting of the Democratic National Committee when she said, “I understand the frustration and outrage, (but) you have to have 60 votes to cap troops, to limit funding, to do anything.”

She heard a smattering of boos for enunciating a simple fact of life in the Senate. The Left of the Democratic party didn’t want to hear it, and it forced the Democratic leadership of Congress and the Democratic presidential candidates — eventually including Clinton herself — to act in contravention of this reality, to the party’s serious detriment.

There is a limit to how much Democrats can hurt themselves on the war. No matter what they do, the war is still unpopular and a net drag on Republicans. Nonetheless, Democrats have helped drive the approval levels of Congress down to historic lows and suffered an enormous opportunity cost.

Throughout this past year, they could have seized the broad middle in the debate concerning the war. They could have worked with a slice of moderate Republicans on legislation that wouldn’t have forced an end to the war, but made them the representatives of a bipartisan alternative to Bush’s strategy. Instead they talked of ending the war outright, positioning themselves to the left of the public and setting themselves an unattainable goal.

Thus, they became the party of the impotent left-wingers. They fell victim to all the same dreary failings of overreaching congressional Republicans after their takeover of Congress in 1994 — hubris, self-delusion, and a slavish devotion to their political base.

They made a hard timetable for withdrawal their bottom line when they could have gotten Republicans to support something short of that — say, a bill calling for the implementation of the recommendations of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group. The timetable didn’t have the votes, but Democrats figured that if they forced Republicans to keep voting on it, eventually they’d buckle. This meant the Democratic Congress would be characterized by partisan confrontation leading to ... nothing.

At least until such time as Republicans caved, which Democrats considered inevitable. They mistakenly believed the Iraq debate could head in only one direction — theirs. Meanwhile, their base locked them into their strategy. A fear stalks the Democratic party — of the bloggers and activists of groups like MoveOn.org who will punish anyone for departing from the strictest antiwar orthodoxy.

August was supposed to be the surge’s Waterloo. Republicans would go home and hear from angry constituents about the war. Antiwar groups would hammer them. But Republicans didn’t hear much about the war. Lawmakers from both parties took trips to Iraq where they saw improving security conditions firsthand, and some Democrats were forthright enough to say so.

The table was set for Gen. Petraeus’s September report, which Democrats had convinced themselves would be the war’s final gasp. A few weeks ago, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid even fretted that the administration wouldn’t allow Petraeus to testify publicly. All through the summer, Republicans used Petraeus’s September report as a placeholder — urging that we wait to hear from the general — and when he testified, he made as persuasive a case as possibly could be made for the war.

Democrats were wrong-footed. Their all-or-nothing opposition to the war made it impossible for them to digest any good news, so they resorted to ham-handed attacks on the general’s credibility. Even the usually shrewd Rep. Rahm Emanuel — architect of the Democratic takeover of the House — blustered, “We don’t need a report that wins the Nobel Prize for creative statistics or the Pulitzer for fiction.”

So, amazingly, President Bush is able to endorse Gen. Petraeus’s recommendation for a conditions-based drawdown in troops from a position of relative strength. Four years into an unpopular, often mishandled war, Democrats are the ones scrambling for a new political strategy. And, as so often happens in politics, they did it to themselves.

Answer 7

Patriotism is when you put your country ahead of your personal ideology.

It means putting the values of your country ahead of your personal values.

This does not mean that you go with the majority (except in votes, of course). It means that in the United States (differs in other countries) that you support the basic principles in our Constitution (and therefore the Bill of Rights) as well as other aspects of our country (freedom, free speech, equality, etc.).

Socialism is not one of those values. It is not unpatriotic, simply not patriotic.

It IS anti-capitalist, against the very economic system that made us the richest nation on Earth. People complain about the debt forgetting that we are owed many times that amount by other nations, and have an excellent economic reputation.

Why would we risk that by encouraging socialism? We already suffer from high medical bills due to competition being removed by the use of HMOs and other socialist-based systems.

Silly.

NO SOCIALISM.

Answer 8

In America, a true patriot is anyone who holds stock in Haliburton, KBR, Exxon, or Walmart, or does exactly what they are told by them, and stands against anything that right-wing media groups claim is socialism.
/end sarcasm