Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
Ta-Nehisi Coates has an excellent post about the right's continual insistence on the most shallow and arrogant conception of patriotism, the macho nationalism that is so ubiquitous among conservatives. He is responding to this statement by Liz Cheney objecting to Obama's unwillingness to offer such a vision:
We've now seen several different occasions when he's been on the international trips, where he's not willing to say, flat out, 'I believe in American exceptionalism. I believe unequivocally, unapologetically, America is the best nation that ever existed in history, and clearly that exists today.' Instead we've seen him do what we saw him do in the speech in Cairo, which is sort of, 'on one hand this, on the other hand that,' and then attempt to put himself sort of above it all. I think that troubles people.
Imagine that, a president who goes around the world and actually recognizes that the United States isn't perfect, that sometimes others in the world have legitimate complaints about our actions. A president who doesn't just offer trite arrogance -- WE ARE THE GREATEST! -- instead of reason and rationality. I know that's shocking after the simplemindedness of Bush the lesser and Reagan, but it's a hell of an improvement in my book.
Coates cites a similar statement by George Wallace talking about the white race being "the greatest people that have ever trod this earth" and then says:
What you have, in both cases, is a hustle, a bait and switch, in which one claims to be hawking patriotism, but in fact, is selling jingoism. If patriotism is love of country, then much of the unquestioning GOP rhetoric fails on the rudiments. Is love of kin, love of siblings, love of spouse, telling your beloved, that they are the best person that's ever existed in history? Or is that sycophancy, fast talk proffered by loose friends, who in your darkest hours, appeal to your worst self.The religious right isn't what's wrong with the GOP. It's the pervasive, unthinking, unreflective nationalism. It's the arrogance of thrice-divorced adulterers reaching for the banner of traditional families, and it's the arrogance of men who prosecuted a poorly planned war, on weak intelligence, presuming to lecture us on national security.
It's all of those things, of course, and much more. This is one of the core reasons why I find conservatism in this country so loathsome. They manage to be correct on a few issues here and there but that fact is buried under a mountain of shallow, simplistic marketing bullshit - prepackaged patriotism wrapped in a flag with a magnetic yellow ribbon. I simply cannot abide replacing intelligence with weepy eyed and manipulative emotionalism.
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What really galls me is that the loudest and most obnoxious of these "patriots" have absolutely ZERO patriotic credentials. Most of the neocons I'm familiar with are draft dodgers fom the Vietnam era.
Posted by: Dogbert | July 2, 2009 9:38 AM
How about a link to the original post?
Posted by: Skip | July 2, 2009 9:42 AM
Skip:
Ed's doing us a favor. Anyone who goes to the original post gets their IP address flagged as "Un-Amurikin" and when the Republicans take over again they'll be the first up against the wall.
Posted by: Geds | July 2, 2009 10:07 AM
It's all about the deliciousness of violence inflicted on somebody else, you know. That wonderful, cathartic feeling of picking a fight with all the odds on your side and buddies that will do the holding while you get to hit the helpless victim.
Violence is the natural result of nationalism, since nationalism is wasted without someone to prove it on. Fighting rather than thinking is the whole point. Nothing gives power to those who direct the violence like more violence. Preferably against someone weaker.
'A short victorious war' is never enough, but it's always what is predicted.
Posted by: Longstreet63 | July 2, 2009 10:18 AM
One of my favorite musicians is John Prine. He has a great song, actually first recorded decades ago, called "Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore", from his self-titled album released in 1971. It's worth a listen (along with everything else he's done); its message is just as pertinent nowadays as it was then.
Posted by: Michael Day | July 2, 2009 10:23 AM
Posted by: Martian Buddy | July 2, 2009 10:25 AM
What I can never work out is what such a pronouncement is supposed to achieve. Say Obama had said those words in Cairo. Who exactly would it have impressed, beyond the "USA! USA!" crowd at home? What policy goals would it have advanced? What diplomatic relations would it have improved?
Basically, again and again the nationalist and the religious right come across as massively insecure in their chauvinism - they constantly need their egos stroked, to be reassured in their beliefs and their superiority, no matter the cost or context. It's really, really transparent.
Posted by: Ginger Yellow | July 2, 2009 10:54 AM
#7 Ginger Yellow:
"Basically, again and again the nationalist and the religious right come across as massively insecure in their chauvinism - they constantly need their egos stroked, to be reassured in their beliefs and their superiority, no matter the cost or context. It's really, really transparent."
Absolutely perfect nutshell summary of the type.
Posted by: Michael Day | July 2, 2009 10:59 AM
One of my favorite musicians is John Prine.
The Maywood Mailman! He and I learned to play the guitar at the same place (Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music). About 40 years apart, but still. And he's had the *slightly* more successful musical career. :-)
In all seriousness, not to take things off-topic, but Prine's a tremendous songwriter, whether he's writing about the political or the personal. ("Flag Decal" has occurred to me many times while pondering the past decade's events...) Check him out.
Posted by: FBI Regional Bureau Chief GORDON COLE!!! | July 2, 2009 11:02 AM
Literally
Posted by: Dr X | July 2, 2009 11:13 AM
Well all I can say is, San Dimas High School Football Rules!
Posted by: Abby Normal | July 2, 2009 11:16 AM
I'd say the best comparison to the macho bluster of the right is best & most accurately compared to the pant-hooting of a bunch of chimps that feel threatened.
More evidence for common descent.
Posted by: Rob Jase | July 2, 2009 11:17 AM
I love this line from Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience":
A very few, as heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men, serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it.
Also a John Prine fan -
Your flag decal won't get you into heaven anymore
They're already overcrowded, from your dirty little war.
Posted by: Taz | July 2, 2009 11:26 AM
Just a few quotes that spring to mind (in some cases, emphasis my own):
"When fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."
- Sinclair Lewis
Fascism is capitalism in decay
- Vladimir Lenin
"When and if fascism comes to America it will not be labeled 'made in Germany'; it will not be marked with a swastika; it will not even be called fascism; it will be called, of course, 'Americanism.'"
- Halford E. Luccock
Posted by: TheEngima32 | July 2, 2009 11:27 AM
I wonder about the political future of the US so long as one sides "virtues" are the other sides "vices."
Posted by: BaldApe | July 2, 2009 11:34 AM
I echo Skip, though we may both be missing the obvious: Where is the link to the discussed post?
Posted by: Russell | July 2, 2009 11:38 AM
Coates's blog is here:
http://ta-nehisicoates.theatlantic.com/
but for some reason I'm not finding the referenced post.
Posted by: FBI Regional Bureau Chief GORDON COLE!!! | July 2, 2009 11:50 AM
@ Skip & Russell
I believe this is the original article.
Posted by: Abby Normal | July 2, 2009 11:52 AM
My country. When right to be kept right. When wrong, to pretend it's right.
Posted by: James Hanley | July 2, 2009 11:59 AM
'I believe in American exceptionalism. I believe unequivocally, unapologetically, America is the best nation that ever existed in history, and clearly that exists today.' Instead we've seen him do what we saw him do in the speech in Cairo, which is sort of
Sadly, this is the American right's idea of diplomacy.
Posted by: Sadie Morrison | July 2, 2009 12:02 PM
There's a related issue which always really annoys me, which is the tendency of right-wing columnists to frame every domestic issue in military terms. For guessable psychological reasons, this is strongest in pro-war writers and politicians who have themselves never served in a war.
I first noticed this when I felt my gag reflex uncontrollably kick in reading a conservative reassessment of Scooter Libby's career titled - I still can't believe this - "A Fallen Soldier". At the time I thought that showed an astonishing lack of perspective, but then Pete Sessions made a bizarre comparison between the remaining Republican congressmen and the Taliban, and Joe 'Plate Tectonics' Barton picked it up and said he was engaged in guerilla warfare against environmental regulations (although, amusingly, he seems to think guerilla warfare involves fighting gorillas), and I was forced to accept that this was a widespread phenomenon.
It's there in the British pro-war left, too. Again, there's not a veteran amongst them, but you can't get through, say, a book review by Nick Cohen without reading a load of stuff along the lines of "...the argument is DOMINATED by this MUSCULAR new book in which the author lands a STRONG KNOCK-OUT BLOW on the jaws of his enemies..."
I guess they think it makes them sound tough. It actually sounds like the script for a clandestine wrestling-themed gay stag film circa 1953, which probably wasn't what they were going for.
Posted by: Der Bruno Stroszek | July 2, 2009 12:26 PM
Longstreet63:
"Fighting rather than thinking is the whole point. Nothing gives power to those who direct the violence like more violence. Preferably against someone weaker--by proxy, of course. One mustn't actually take a chance of getting hurt."
Sorry, you forgot to finish that sentence.
Der Bruno Stroszek
"It actually sounds like the script for a clandestine wrestling-themed gay stag film circa 1953, which probably wasn't what they were going for."
Not conciously, at any rate.
Posted by: democommie | July 2, 2009 1:05 PM
This is why I always react with puzzlement when the platitudinists (my coinage, thank you) claim that "we all want the same things". I just don't see it.
Posted by: xebecs | July 2, 2009 1:10 PM
Posted by: Taz | July 2, 2009 1:31 PM
Hey, I used to think that too! When I was about seven years old.
Posted by: KristinMH | July 2, 2009 1:32 PM
Skip @2:
No lie, bwana. Check out this web page.
Posted by: Lsuoma | July 2, 2009 2:13 PM
"I didn't realize it was an article of faith."
That's exactly what it is, and it's my contention that it's more or less the same kind of faith as that which causes some parents to want their children to be shielded at all costs from even learning about the existence of homosexuality, say, or evolution, for fear that their fragile faith will shatter. It's all about the cognitive dissonance. If you're living in a world that contradicts your worldview at every turn, you have to go to pretty extraordinary lengths to buttress it.
Posted by: Ginger Yellow | July 2, 2009 3:06 PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp1mIYJNKWQ
The aforementioned Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore.
Posted by: Sean Micheal | July 2, 2009 4:26 PM
I like Ta-Nehisi Coates. This is off topic, but her name, I think, is Ancient Egyptian for "the copper-lady", a term used to refer to Nubians (as being darker of skin than Egyptians). Although, Grammatically, I think it probably ought to have a female ending on the Nehisi, so Ta-Nehisyt?
That and I agree with a lot of her opinions.
Posted by: Scrabcake | July 2, 2009 4:43 PM
Yeah, this sort of thing is really troubling. I recall early last year, O'Reilly was pouncing on Michelle Obama for something she had said. Quoth he, "I don't want to go on a lynching party against Michelle Obama unless there's evidence, hard facts, that say this is how the woman really feels. If that's how she really feels -- that America is a bad country or a flawed nation, whatever -- then that's legit."
Apparently, if someone thinks America is in any way flawed, that it is anything less than perfect, then that opens them up to be the victim of a (metaphorical) "lynching party".
Posted by: Skemono | July 2, 2009 6:25 PM
What Ms Cheney means is
VOTE for my patriotism,
RECEIVE tax cuts for the rich, torture and innocent deaths.
[Embarrassing admission: I have been reading Ta-nahisi on and off for a year or so, but thought "she" was a "he"!)
Posted by: toby | July 3, 2009 5:22 AM
If Obama was the sort of dickface who would go to another country, get up on stage and yell USA! USA! I think many of us wouldn't have voted for him.
Liz Cheney is the kind of person who votes President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho into office.
Posted by: steve s | July 3, 2009 12:18 PM
Speaking of Nationalistic Machismo, how about them illegal aliens flying thier flags in OUR country and protesting? Only in California...
Posted by: Confused abpout libaeralism/marxism | July 3, 2009 1:30 PM
Wow.
Europeans have a long way to go getting people in jail to be such a perfect nation as America!
Posted by: Guido | July 4, 2009 10:05 AM