Criticizing our country allows for stronger, improved America

During the 2004 presidential election, as I drove around my home “red state” of Tennessee, I… During the 2004 presidential election, as I drove around my home “red state” of Tennessee, I frequently noticed a rather cleverly worded new political slogan of the Bush campaign. Everywhere I went, “I stand with W ” was plastered on bumper stickers on the SUVs in front of me. Since it was rather hard for even the most liberal voters to stand with John Kerry – he kept shifting his position on them – it only seemed logical that the Bush campaign would highlight the steadfastness with which Bush held to his policies.

Humanity has long found comfort in fixating on a leader or a set of ideals. Yet, the problem with fixation is that one becomes like a horse with blinders. If you only see the option in front of you, you do not know what other options you may be passing. Ever since the Puritans established their “city on a hill,” and John O’Sullivan proclaimed our “manifest destiny,” Americans have long felt the United States to be an exceptional place. It is part of our grandly conceived national idealism that we are destined by God to lead the world toward the triumph of human freedom and just government. Accordingly, we have found little room for self-criticism. Why criticize God’s chosen people? Is not everything we do, by nature, right?

I frequently hear this type of logic articulated in less overt terms when I listen to the commentary of some of my more idealistic friends. I am constantly hearing, “I stand with the president because he is the president.” While maxims such as this one reflect more of an institutional respect than undue jingoism, I feel that the two are neighbors on the same slippery slope.

While I too have respect for American institutions – I’d stand if President Bush walked into the room right now – I have no trouble criticizing presidential policy. The presidency is not divinely endorsed, and I, a voting member of this participatory democracy, feel no qualms about expressing my opinion that its national policies are in error.

Similarly, I feel no qualms about saying that this nation as a whole has imperfections in its national character. Yet, the criticism of some of my more traditional friends scares me from articulating such sentiments. “They hate America,” one of my friends once told me of liberals.

I do not hate America. I love this country. I spent six months abroad, and every day I yearned more for home. But, at the same time, a healthy knowledge of the value of self-criticism guards me from blind patriotism. The slave trade was once a constitutionally protected provision. We once orchestrated the mass slaughter of a native ethnic group. Immigrants at one point had to suffer the prejudice that they weren’t blessed with the same excellent mental makeup as Anglo-Saxons. Our record is far from perfect.

Yet, today you will still find many people who are reluctant to criticize the current state of the nation. Racism is a thing of the past. Most poverty is a result of laziness. Spreading democracy justifies war. Torture is fine if it’s in our national security interests. These arguments can be made, of course, and they should be. But it does not make me any less patriotic if I do not believe them to be true.

I happen to support democratic capitalism – but suppose that I didn’t. Suppose that I stood on the street corner and argued for socialism. I would likely be called “un-American.” Since when is America an ideology and not a people? And since when should the public discourse discount those who want to change America for the better? I often hear one American say to another, “If you don’t like it, leave!” If only it were so easy for one to shed his own skin.

Ironically, it is patriotism that denies the critic relocation. I criticize America because I want to better America. Sometimes, while temporarily difficult, self-criticism actually makes us stronger. I have poured over this column countless times to see if I can strengthen it. Does this mean that I’m not a good writer? No, it just means that I can always improve.

Furthermore, I also evenhandedly praise America. I think that Bill Clinton articulated it best when he delivered his first inaugural address: “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be fixed by what is right with America.” Indeed, the greatest country on Earth is fully capable of fixing all of its own problems, but first we have to admit that we have them.