Among its many charms, the politicization of the Covid-19 Virus has brought many a new twist to what could be considered the actions of a true American patriot. Always mindful of balancing the needs of the many with the rights and liberties of the individual, in the final analysis a good citizen must often eschew their own personal, immediate interests for what is best for the greater good.
I believe it is more than fair to equate patriotism with sacrifice in the name of what is best for the continuation of our entire nation, often forcing a choice between the needs of the many above the needs of few. In many instances, we call this practice placing country over party.
Yet these are strange social and political times we live in. An era where wearing or not wearing a mask during a pandemic has risen to the level of indicating a party affiliation, a political statement of freedom and the right to live one’s life without “tyrannical” government interference.
This despite the undeniable reality that as simple an act as wearing a mask in public may save someone’s life, including their own. Perhaps the oddest of today’s new found “right to life” movement is the conflation of measures meant to do nothing more than protect against the transmission of a highly contagious and deadly virus during a pandemic as an act of anti-despotism and incredibly in service to a walking, talking, unrepentant symbol of vile ambitions the most obvious of which is to turn our great democratic republic into a fascist regime reminiscent of the black shirts in Italy under Mussolini.
How did getting or not getting an injection become associated with our definition of a patriot? Last time I looked, a patriot was someone who would give up their own life to, as the license plates in New Hampshire say, “Live Free or Die”. A personal choice of courage and conviction so to speak. I ask you in all sincerity, how is it even remotely an act of fealty or bravery, much less patriotic for someone to protect their personal freedom from tyranny by putting at risk someone else’s life?
While the words pig-headed, selfish and misguided do immediately come to mind, the words including free will, the rule of law, liberty and equality, representing those ideals predicated upon our Founding Fathers’ desire to live in a free country built upon no restraints except the talents and ambitions of free men, do not.
We are living in an age where the scourge of all we hold sacred including the basic right to vote, call them Republicans, although I doubt Abraham Lincoln would recognize or approve of this generation’s specious interpretation of a once proud party founded upon abolition, free men and women freeing those who were not, by ending the evil and inhumane institution of slavery.
What would Honest Abe have said if he saw the United States of America, in its quest to if nothing else, promote the general welfare by giving out free vaccines to the world mind you, during a deadly pandemic courtesy of a virus that does not care what political persuasion you align yourself with as an act of sedition, treason and worthy of overthrow by violent insurrection?
How would our greatest president react to the rejection of a life-saving measure offered to anyone, regardless of progressive or conservative ideology in favor of animal de-wormers, bleach, prayer (he might believe that one) or any one of many fake or unproven as effective medical products that the quack huckster of the week claims as a proven 100% cure on his official website) of the week).
Well, Lincoln had a bit to say about who and how many times people can be fooled, but is it not true we are still waiting for the “you can fool some of the people some of the time” phase to come to an ending? Or, as many of us genuinely fear, has a section of our population been lost forever to the brainwashing of the Fox Propaganda Channel as weaponized by the GQP as a means of extending whatever dwindling power they have left as they head themselves toward oblivion?
Are these the actions of patriots? Including the persons in power who are here to protect us from all threats foreign and domestic, fully vaccinated and boosted themselves (with a few loony tunes exceptions) while continuing to feather their own nests at the expense of the lives of their constituents?
If we add in the implications of a nation of once sane inhabitants gone gun crazy to the point of Second Amendment rights being more important than the freedoms of speech and religion, as guaranteed to us under the First Amendment, and you have an increasingly volatile, toxic mix that promotes nothing short of justice via vigilantism, or if you prefer “militias” well trained and regulated by the State now optional.
Vindication, retribution, law and order, love, peace of mind and patriotism all via the barrel of a gun all aimed at the hearts and minds of another, by one another.
Doesn’t this sound more akin to the result of a master plan, long in the making, with its manipulator in chief claiming whatever supernatural powers necessary conning a group of willing but unwitting followers into his/her cult of death, doom and destruction? Playing the classic yet always popular find somebody else to blame while riding the gravy train game for all that it is worth?
Until finally, as the all do, the invincible leader, myth and faux magic collapses unto itself taking as many a poor soul as it can into the darkness of the abyss?
The one at the top? The false prophet, the subject of idolatry, infallible as in this case, he supposedly does the work of an unfeeling and uncaring deity who worships greed, dissension and dementia as the pathways to enlightenment and eternity? You will always know him/her as they will be the ones who tell the biggest of lies. Whoppers so huuuge, why, they must be true.
Lies about losing elections before the votes are counted. Lies, half-truths and fantastic stories of intrigue, treason and conspiracy theories without the benefit of a shred of truth. Truth? How far has that gotten you? Ignore what the learned, wise and experienced, say. Listen to your gut, your madness, hatred and rage. Your feelings. That is what will guide you to your place in the promised land.
If you are confused, let me help you with that. Don’t be fooled by “facts”. Let your ignorance be a blessing. Let your uncluttered with useless information mind feel the freedom to accept that which you and you alone after listening to my latest screed of course tells you to think, feel and believe. This is all the truth (and love?) you will ever need.
As I have mentioned before the combination of ignorance and arrogance is a powerful venom, sure to lead to acts of violence inspired by intolerance, degradation, disenchantment and now facilitated by disease.
Can somebody please tell me how and when this concoction of evil doings and intent, to blame someone else and have them face the consequences associated with bigotry, misogyny, theological but convenient inaccuracy, and sophistry become patriotic? I’ll wait.
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