Countering RW attacks on Dem Patriotism -- Participate!

[theHandpuppet]

How many times have we heard the same old lines -- from even our leaders in Congress who should know better -- questioning the patriotism of anyone who dares to speak out against Bush or the war in Iraq?

It's time to counter these arguments with lessons in real American history and patriotism. Over two hundred years ago a brave band of heroic patriots dared to stand up to and speak out against another King George, and in the process penned the Declaration of Independence, The US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. These very founders of the United States of America would be appalled to hear voices of opposition accused of being unpatriotic or even treasonous.

So I'm starting a thread here to serve as a basic history lesson for RW goosesteppers everywhere, from the Toby Keiths of the world to Orrin Hatch. The quotes to be provided in this thread will make for very pointed responses to any Bushdog attacks on Dem patriotism and can be easily pasted in emails or included in letters.

I'm personally going to start this off with some quotes from Thomas Jefferson, with http://etext.virginia.edu/jefferson/quotations/jeffcont.htm as my source reference. Please add your own favorites from other American patriots.

"There is more honor and magnanimity in correcting, than persevering in an error." --Thomas Jefferson: Batture at New Orleans, 1812.

"Difference of opinion leads to enquiry, and enquiry to truth; and that, I am sure, is the ultimate and sincere object of us both. We both value too much the freedom of opinion sanctioned by our Constitution, not to cherish its exercise even where in opposition to ourselves." --Thomas Jefferson to P. H. Wendover, 1815.

"We are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it." --Thomas Jefferson to William Roscoe, 1820.

"Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error... They are the natural enemies of error, and of error only... If be restrained now, the present corruptions will be protected, and new ones encouraged." --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia

"By oft repeating an untruth, men come to believe it themselves." --Thomas Jefferson to John Melish, 1813

"It is of great importance to set a resolution not to be shaken, never to tell an untruth. There is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible; and he who permits himself to tell a lie once finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions." --Thomas Jefferson to Peter Carr

[calimary]

1. Kick this.

Good quotes. Good raw material!

[Cassandra]

2. This one is timely

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania, 1759

[theHandpuppet]

3. This one from Teddy Roosevelt

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." Theodore Roosevelt (1918)

[whistle]

4. "Jefferson?...spit.....We don't need no stinking Jefferson!"

...The neo-con mantra. Perhaps they look to a different light for their vision of Amerika:

<snip>

Except the Lord built the house they labour in vain.... The truth of that text was proved if one looks at the house of which the foundations were laid in 1918 and which since then has been in building.... The world will not help, the people must help itself. Its own strength is the source of life. That strength the Almighty has given us to use; that in it and through it we may wage the battle of our life.... The others in the past years have not had the blessing of the Almighty-- of Him Who in the last resort, whatever man may do, holds in His hands the final decision. Lord God, let us never hesitate or play the coward, let us never forget the duty which we have taken upon us.... We are all proud that through God's powerful aid we have become once more true Germans.
-Adolf Hitler, in a speech in March 1933



<snip>

We have experienced a miracle, something unique, something the like of which there has hardly been in the history of the world. God first allowed our people to be victorious for four and a half years, then He abased us, laid upon us a period of shamelessness, but now after a struggle of fourteen years he has permitted us to bring that period to a close. It is a miracle which has been wrought upon the German people.... It shows us that the Almighty has not deserted our people, that He received it into favour at the moment when it rediscovered itself. And that our people shall never again lose itself, that must be our vow so long as we shall live and so long as the Lord gives us the strength to carry on the fight.
-Adolf Hitler, in a speech to the "Old Guard" of the Party at Munich on 19 March, 1934

<link> http://www.nobeliefs.com/speeches.htm

[theHandpuppet]

5. Two more...

"Do not... regard the critics as questionable patriots.  What were Washington and Jefferson and Adams but profound critics of the colonial status quo?"   ~Adlai Stevenson

"What we need are critical lovers of America - patriots who express their faith in their country by working to improve it." ~Hubert H. Humphrey

[tjwash]

6. Patriotism...

In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.
- Mark Twain, Notebook, 1904

We teach them to take their patriotism at second-hand; to shout with the largest crowd without examining into the right or wrong of the matter--exactly as boys under monarchies are taught and have always been taught. We teach them to regard as traitors, and hold in aversion and contempt, such as do not shout with the crowd, and so here in our democracy we are cheering a thing which of all things is most foreign to it and out of place--the delivery of our political conscience into somebody else's keeping. This is patriotism on the Russian plan.
- Mark Twain, a Biography

The United States was founded by a group of white, slave owners that said "all men are created equal." That is known as being full of shit. These same white, slave owning, land holders also tried to pass a constitutional amendment to ensure that their class was the only ones allowed to vote. THAT is known as being stunningly, and embarrassingly, full of shit.
- George Carlin

[theHandpuppet]

7. I'll have a Sam Adams...

"It is to be expected that some who are void of the least regard to the public, will put on the appearance and even speak boldly the language of patriots, with the sole purpose of gaining the confidence of the public..."

-- Samuel Adams

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

8. "Patrotism is the passion of fools, and the most foolish of passions"

Schopenhauer.

The "My zucchini patch is better than your zuchini patch." notion of politics and the world. Best left to adolescents.

[Q]

9. Jefferson again comes to mind...relevant to the current administration

"Unless the mass retains sufficient control over those entrusted with the powers of their government, these will be perverted to their own oppression, and to the perpetuation of wealth and individuals and their families selected for the trust. Whether our Constitution has hit on the exact degree of control necessary, is yet under experiment." --Thomas Jefferson to M. van der Kemp, 1812. ME 13:136

"I sincerely wish... we could see our government so secured as to depend less on the character of the person in whose hands it is trusted. Bad men will sometimes get in and with such an immense patronage may make great progress in corrupting the public mind and principles. This is a subject with which wisdom and patriotism should be occupied." --Thomas Jefferson to Moses Robinson, 1801. ME 10:237

"An elective despotism was not the government we fought for, but one which should not only be founded on true free principles, but in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among general bodies of magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits without being effectually checked and restrained by the others." --Thomas Jefferson