So many of us talk about patriotism and our belief in the principles of America, yet many of those principles seem to be diametrically opposed. In fact, some people who love America believe others who love America must really hate America, at least the America they love.
What?
Many arguments bring up the Constitution and the intent of our Founding Fathers, yet without any of them actually being here to explain a few things we are left to our beliefs, and those beliefs often conflict.
Some Americans point to the Second Amendment and feel it is their constitutional right to carry firearms and the intention of the framers to protect our sovereignty by keeping us armed. Prefatory clauses about well-regulated militias and changing realities aside, it’s right there in black and white, and many people feel patriotic imagining a country armed to the teeth. Even in schools.
There are others who believe if living in tranquility is our goal, then perhaps the proliferation of deadly force is the wrong way to achieve that end. They would like to see an America where civilians didn’t have to carry guns to feel safe. Especially in our schools.
Many Americans believe our greatness is derived from being a Christian nation. Others cite the First Amendment, prohibiting any law respecting an establishment of religion, as the very cornerstone of American freedom.
There are those who want to keep our enemies at bay by refusing negotiation or trade. They feel cooperation makes us weak and makes our enemies stronger. But there are others who see trade and negotiation as steps toward peace that will reduce the enemies at our gates.
Most Americans claim to value our amber waves of grain and want to preserve the purple mountain’s majesty for all time, but there are those who believe every resource can be drilled, mined or fracked to achieve and sustain economic gain.
There are people who believe if torture can save American lives that justice is being served. There are others who believe America should always stand above barbarism and defend human rights at all costs; they believe that is the moral authority of which we should be most proud.
On one side are those who believe welfare weakens our financial strength, but others believe welfare is an ethical system to allow the financially weakest among us a chance to become stronger.
Some people view gay marriage as a corrosion of the biblical principles they consider foundational, but others see the inclusion of all Americans to the guarantee and protection of civil rights as the advancement of our collective morality.
Diametrically opposed ideas, yet all illustrate the paradoxical character of the America we defend. So how is policy created to move us in any direction whatsoever? How can there be progress when the only consistency is polarity itself?
I know where I stand on each of these issues, and I know there are gradations of every issue where others will stand as resolute. But I see America moving in a progressive direction in a conservative fashion.
Civil rights were not complete when our country created a document to defend exactly that; the unalienable rights of all Americans. There was a contradiction to be sure, but we remain destined toward the realization of that ideal.
We are not there yet, but because of vigilant liberalism we move closer.
Conservatism has a history of activism to protect our individual liberty. With vigilant conservatism we move closer.
Note, however, that it is disingenuous if it appears that I am drawing equivalence between two ideologies. Neither broad ideology is consistent throughout history, but modern conservatism has betrayed its forebears by embracing a far right platform that requires little to no evidence to support its claims. More than anything else that has created the discord that today infects every aspect of our political culture.
There is no easy way out of this but we can plant seeds by asking of ourselves what each of us believes to be the character of the America they love. From those conversations lies our best chance to restore reason to our rhetoric.
