Dick Polman
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Mar. 23, 2003 12:00 AM
Gulf War II is in full swing on the home front. In the latest manifestation of the 200-year-old struggle over what it means to be patriotic, the war dissidents are taking a beating.
The Dixie Chicks' music has been banned on certain radio stations. Former President Carter has been told by Republican Sen. John McCain to "shut up." Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle has similarly been told by House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to "fermez la bouche."
Boycotts and spitting
Thirteen prominent actors and musicians have been listed by the New York Post as "Saddam Lovers" whose work should be boycotted. Eric Foner, a prominent historian, has been labeled "an ornament of Columbia University's Marxist firmament." The other night, a rodeo fan in Texas was spat on when he stayed in his seat during the playing of Lee Greenwood's Proud To Be an American.
There are lots of examples, such as the Manhattanville College basketball player who turned her back during the national anthem, only to have a war vet shove a flag in her face.
In wartime, the right to dissent has always been trumped by the belief that all citizens should unite in common purpose.
That's part of the intrinsic tension in the American experiment: between minority rights and majority rule; between pride in diversity and pressure to conform; between respect for the loner who speaks his mind, and the desire for a shared identity.
Cecelia O'Leary, an expert on U.S. patriotism, said: "We've always struggled with what it means to be patriotic. Some think, 'My country, right or wrong,' and worry that a country with so many different voices is fragile enough to break apart .
"But others see patriotism as saying what they believe, and having a willingness to ask hard questions in the darkest hours, about whether this democracy is living up to its own ideals."
Conservative David Horowitz frames the pro-war camp's take on patriotism: "In war, some sort of basic unity against the enemy is necessary. To seek to disrupt that unity is to aid the enemy."
Nevertheless, critics of this war on Iraq have discovered the truth of what Alexis de Tocqueville observed about America 160 years ago, that "the tyranny of the majority" often "represses not only all contest, but all controversy."
Unworthy of airplay
Thirteen days after Dixie Chicks member Natalie Maines told an audience that she was "ashamed" of President Bush, the band's music is deemed unworthy of airplay. She vouched for her patriotism on March 14, but that hasn't seemed to help.
Veteran conservative leader William Bennett in his recent book, Why We Fight, writes that although diversity is a fine thing, it can sow divisions, "and insofar as these divisions prevent the forging of a single people, they also prevent the building of a true and thoughtful patriotism."
Yet Americans rarely march in unison during war. As historian Douglas Brinkley said Friday: "Patriotic dissent has been a permanent part of the war climate. To not realize that is to misunderstand our national history."
The problem is that some current antiwar dissidents aren't framing their arguments in patriotic terms; historian Michael Kazin warns that, by comparing Bush to Hitler, they're ceding patriotism to those the majority who support Bush's war policy.
Find this article at:
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0323war-patriotism23.html