I was wondering what the flag represents given the SCOTUS keeps giving more power to the few as evidenced by the most recent McCutcheon decision....
As some of you know, I served active-duty so patriotism is not something alien to me but find it harder and harder to care when the gov't increasingly are merely water-carriers for the well- heeled.
First, I thank you for your service.
Second, I share your dismay that we seem headed to making political influence and justice itself a commodity to be brokered and sold.
For me the flag and similar symbols and icons do not and have never belonged to particular political movements, parties, candidates, or factions. They belong to the whole of what America aspires to be. In Lincoln's reckoning, this stretches back at least to 1774 and stretches as far into the future as anyone will hear the "mystic echos".
What America means is an aspirational goal. We will never fully meet it, but we should always try. It means a commitment to individual liberty and community responsibility; to equal opportunity and compassion as well. No one can take those aspirations away from us as long as we believe in them. They can only be lost if we abandon them. To fight for them does not mean we will win, but it is better to fail in a fight for the good than to not fight at all.
There is a false dichotomy of ends and means. One of the basic concepts of America is that the highest order of goals is the means we will not use to achieve lesser goals. Freedom cannot be compromised for security, lest we end up with neither. From this springs the dedication to the rule of law. We cannot save constitutional government by ignoring and circumventing the Constitution. Even Lincoln recognized that some of his actions might be extra-constitutional, justified by necessity, and he deferred to the highest constitutional authority, the legislative branch, to approve or reverse his actions, and if necessary to replace him. The gap between Lincoln's call for a special session of Congress to be held July 4, 1861 and current theories of the powers of the executive is striking.
So I believe that the flag represents an America whose greatness does not depend upon some doctrine of American exceptionalism or manifest destiny. We are not anointed by God (if one exists) for any special purpose. Rather we are the happy inheritors of a dream common to mankind, which succeeding generations have pledged life, honor, and treasure to advance. A dream where every person has innate worth and is entitled to opportunity, where government is the servant of the governed, and where all realize we are only as free, only as successful, and only as secure, as the least among us.
There have always been threats to this dream and to the basic concept of America. There have always been advocates of the Lesser America where the dream was only for people of a certain color or a certain religion, where the rule of law covered most but not the most powerful, where liberty was divisible and justice negotiable in the marketplace. Lesser America has been advanced with fear and violence, terrorism and corruption, usually hidden in the darkness. It needs to wrap itself in great symbols and high purpose to deflect from its true agenda. Unfortunately the flag has often been such a symbol, just as a bastardized view of our history has been used to justify every evil act done in the name of America.
It is not easy to separate the manipulative from the misguided. At the end, we can only look at actions as well as rhetoric and determine what vision of America an individual or group is seeking to promote. Some will be generally close to what I have tried to describe here, but others will be headed toward the "Lesser America" of diminished liberty, opportunity, and security for most.
As it always has been, each American must judge for themselves what positions reflect the true American dream, issue by issue. We have a duty, issue by issue, regardless of ideology, to support and advance the ideals of America and to expose and resist the calls of particularist interests fighting for a Lesser America. It has been this way since the inception and will never end. Some days we will wake up and be appalled at where some of our friends have gone, and be surprised at who will make common cause with us from among our former opponents. So perhaps the American dream includes a willingness to accept that conditions change and people can learn. Openness to good ideas should be part of our values.
I know I come off as Pollyannish. I have been through some of the truly dark days of America, in some of the places where the dark was a Stygian blackness. Nihilism is not a place to remain very long. Passive acceptance of evil is a good prescription for depression. For me, I am a cheerful warrior for what I believe in. When I lose I have disappointment, but no regrets if I have done all I could, consistent with my values. At the end of the day, that is enough for me.
I extend you my best wishes. I hope you look around and see those who fight the fight for what you believe in. You know how to take it from there. And never, EVER let anyone talk like the flag you served belongs any less to you than to anyone else. It belongs to every American, and especially to those who try to advance the values it stands for.
Pllease abide by the rules of the CDZ. Last time I'll ask.
