True patriotism is the opposite of Trump’s White Christian Nationalism Thoughts on July 4th - by obert Reich

Found here. Our comments in bold.

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Dr. Reich wouldn't know true patriotism if it came up and punched him in the face. Patriotism is Love of one's country; the passion which moves a person to serve his country, either in defending it from invasion or in protecting its rights and maintaining its laws and institutions. He will do his level best to redefine the term. No surprise, since the Left has been devoted to changing the meaning of words.

Continuing his obsession with Trump, Dr. Reich engages in Mountain Man's Law with impunity, accusing Trump of everything that the Left is actually doing.

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Friends,

On Saturday, Donald Trump conducted the second formal rally of his campaign — in Pickens, South Carolina, where an estimated 50,000 turned up under the scorching sun to hear him. (Transcript here.)

There, he advanced his version of patriotism based on White Christian Nationalism. (There is no such thing.)

He began by celebrating the town’s namesake, Francis Pickens, who was governor of South Carolina when it was the first to secede from the Union on the eve of the Civil War. Trump assured the crowd he wouldn’t let “them” change the town’s name.

He commended the Supreme Court for rejecting affirmative action “so someone who has not worked as hard will not take your place.” (Actual quote: 

if you are a worker and you work very hard in school, you got fantastic marks, somebody that hasn’t done nearly as well, who perhaps has not worked nearly as hard, will not be taking your place on a school, college or at a university. They’re not going to be. We’re going by merit.

He saluted the court’s decision to overrule Roe v. Wade so “radical left Democrats will not kill babies.” (Actual quote: 

...and people that believe in life will be able to stop radical left Democrats from killing babies in their fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth month, and even killing babies after birth, because they are the radical ones.

He promised to stop “men competing in women’s sports” and prevent classroom teachers from teaching the “wrong” lessons about sexuality or history. (Trump did not use the word "wrong." Here is the actual quote:

I will immediately sign a new executive order to cut federal funding for any school pushing Critical Race Theory, transgender insanity, and any other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content to our children.

It is dishonest to put words in a person's mouth.)

He condemned foreign governments that “send” over the border “people in jails and insane asylums” and promised to deny entry to “all communists and Marxists.”

And he declared America’s most dangerous opponents not to be Russia, China, or North Korea but “enemies within” America. (Yes, excellent. Thank you. Mr. President.)

Rubbish. (This is his refutation, a single word.)

The true meaning of patriotism is the opposite of Trump’s exclusionary White Christian Nationalism. (None of the above had anything to do with Trump defining patriotism. We can read Trump's words for ourselves. His references to patriotism include

• believe in God, family and country.
• risk their lives for the majestic cause of freedom
• love our country, to honor our history and always salute our great American flag

These are long held, standard patriotic references. There is nothing at all controversial in them. Dr. Reich is the controversial one, wanting to replace these bedrock concepts with a different vision.)

America's moral mission has been toward greater inclusion (Dr. Reich continues to redefine. America was never about the modern-day leftist version of inclusion. America's mission has always been to limit government so as to provide the environment for liberty and self-determination, things leftists like Dr. Reich hate.)

— providing equal rights to women, Black people, immigrants, Native Americans, Latinx, LGBTQ+, Muslim, Jewish, atheist, and agnostic. ("Equal rights" is a leftist code word for "special rights." These rights are actually impositions on others, requiring not only funding but celebration and affirmation. Anyone deemed insufficiently enthusiastic is immediately impugned, vilified, shouted down, and called names.

Every one of these groups has always possessed unalienable rights:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

Who has been the historical opposition to these profound founding principles? Democrats. They created the KKK, installed racism in the US, passed and enforced discrimination laws, and resisted every reform advanced by Republicans for the last 150 years.

Further, though the Declaration asserts the true nature of man, Democrats have done their level best to ensure that government kept their hateful policies in force. Democrats used the force of government to institutionalize and perpetuate racism. That's why the various amendments were passed, to restrain government from violating peoples' rights.

That's right, government has violated the rights of blacks and others and had to be restrained. Democrats did this. It's truly amazing to us that Democrats have been able to burnish their image while simultaneously continuing their racist policies.)

True patriots don't fuel racist, religious, or ethnic divisions. (Indeed. That would mean that Democrats, who continually pit groups against each other, fomenting envy and discord, are not patriots.)

Patriots aren't homophobic or sexist. (Category Error.)

Nor are patriots blind to social injustices — whether ongoing or embedded in American history. They don’t ban books or prevent teaching about the sins of the nation’s past. (Which hasn't happened.)

True patriots are not uncritically devoted to America. They are devoted instead to the ideals of America — the rule of law, equal justice, voting rights and civil rights, freedom of speech and assembly, freedom from fear, and democracy. (Freedom from fear? This is an American ideal?

And by the way, America was not designed as a democracy. The founders rightly recognized the evil nature of democracy.)

True patriots don’t have to express patriotism in symbolic displays of loyalty like standing for the national anthem and waving the American flag. (You'll never see leftists expressing pride in America. Never. They hate America.)

They express patriotism in taking a fair share of the burdens of keeping the nation going — sacrificing for the common good. (There is no such thing as the common good.)

This means paying taxes in full rather than lobbying for lower taxes or seeking tax loopholes or squirreling away money abroad. (Not paying taxes in full is a crime. Dr. Reich would have to explain who is not paying taxes and why the government hasn't prosecuted them.

Tax loopholes are better known as the tax code. These "loopholes" are the exemptions, credits, and deductions created by politicians and placed into law. The tax code is largely a creation of Democrats.

Tax avoidance is different than tax evasion. The former is legal, the latter is illegal. 

Dr. Reich fills out a tax return every year and most certainly uses the various deductions available to him. So unless he is willing to concede that he also does not pay his taxes in full by using these deductions, he is a hypocrite.) 

It means refraining from making large political contributions that corrupt American democracy. (Again, are laws being broken?)

It means blowing the whistle on abuses of power even at the risk of losing one's job. (Tell that to Gary Shapley.)

And volunteering time and energy to improving one’s community and country. (Wow. He finally got one right. So, how much time, money, and labor has Dr. Reich personally donated to soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and low income housing?)

Nor is patriotism found in baseless claims that millions of people vote fraudulently. (Totally irrelevant to patriotism.)

Or in pushing for laws that make it harder for people to vote based on the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen. (We remember Dr. Reich's own words: True patriots are not uncritically devoted to America. But we can't criticize the election fraud of the 2020 election?)

Patriotism lies instead in strengthening democracy — defending the right to vote and ensuring more Americans are heard.

Patriots understand that when they serve the public, their responsibility is to maintain and build public trust in the institutions of democracy. (True patriots are not uncritically devoted to America. )

They don’t put loyalty to their political party above their love of America. (Irony Alert.)

They don’t support an attempted coup. (Didn't happen.)

They don’t try to hold onto power after voters have chosen not to reelect them. (Didn't happen.)

They don’t make money off their offices. (Didn't happen.

And by the way, how did Joe Biden earn $22.5 million from 1998 to 2019? 10% for the Big Guy, we guess.)

When serving on the Supreme Court, they recuse themselves from cases where they may appear to have a conflict of interest. They don’t disregard precedent to impose their own ideology. (Irony Alert.)

America’s problem is not as described by Trump and his White Christian Nationalism — that the nation is losing its whiteness or dominant religion, that too many foreigners are crossing its borders, that men are competing in women’s sports or teachers are not celebrating the nation’s history.

America’s problem is that too many Americans — including its lawmakers — are failing to understand what patriotism requires.