Among other effective notes in Barack Obama’s convention address, he took on directly the GOP’s attacks on the Democratic Party’s patriotism, saying:
“The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America — they have served the United States of America.”
He’s not going to let McCain get away with questioning his patriotism.
As this blog notes, John Kerry — in his strong speech, which didn’t get as much attention as it deserved — also said important things about the meaning of patriotism, and he challenged those who, four years ago, turned his Vietnam protest into something un-American:
“Years ago when we protested a war, people would weigh in against us, saying, ‘My country right or wrong.’ Our answer? Absolutely, my country right or wrong. When right, keep it right. When wrong, make it right. Sometimes loving your country demands you must tell the truth to power.”
Amen.
