The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

« Among The Hillarians | Main | City By The Kettle »

Patriotic Boxers

09 May 2008 06:51 pm

Larison points me to this sentence by Michael Gerson:

A president is expected to be a patriotic symbol himself, not the arbiter of patriotic symbols. He is supposed to be the face-painted superfan at every home game; to wear red, white and blue boxers on special marital occasions; to get misty-eyed during the most obscure patriotic hymns.

When will be rid of this neurosis? The desperate need to prove and re-prove and demonstrate and re-demonstrate one's love of country is not a form of patriotism. It's a form of insecurity. All the way down to underwear.

Permalink :: Trackback (0) :: Sphere It!

TrackBack URL for this entry:

http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/2224950/28927406

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference 'Patriotic Boxers'

Patrick Appel

Pardoning War Criminals
America doesn't pardon war criminals. It prosecutes and, in the past, has even executed them for the same techniques that Bush and Rumsfeld and Cheney endorsed.
The HIV Travel Ban Is Repealed
I've lived with this awful sense of insecurity, of fear of leaving the country, of visiting my family, of the lingering sense that my virus rendered me potentially deportable, that any roots I put down might be dug up suddenly one day - for fifteen years. The lifting of this threat - the sense that I now have a home I know will be secure for me and my husband - is indescribable.
Obama On Foreign Policy
What's interesting to me is how the speech is about much more than Iraq. It's about focusing on Pakistan, on energy independence, and on Iran. It's a speech that might have been given by the first president Bush.
Judge Judy Republicans
The problem with the working poor, as GNP has it, is not that they're capable of finding shopping bargains and living within their means. It's that they're sinking in a welter of family dysfunction and economic distress - and end up like the plaintiffs on Judge Judy.
Staying
Occupations are like government programs. Once instituted, it seems they can never be abolished.

The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How to Get It Back
Buy The Book (Amazon) Buy The Book (Barnes and Noble) The CSPAN Brian Lamb Interview

Essays	Archive
Why Not Seeing is Believing Green Conservatism The End of Gay Culture Debate with Sam Harris Goodbye to All That	Jul 13 - Jul 19 (219) Jul 06 - Jul 12 (278) Jun 29 - Jul 05 (253) Jun 22 - Jun 28 (320) Jun 15 - Jun 21 (264) Jun 08 - Jun 14 (285) Complete Archive