I remember one of those FaceBook (FB) tests from several years ago that challenged readers to test their patriotism. Who doesn’t want to be a patriot, right? I got sucked in and took the 20-something patriotism test that asked routine questions about American History. They were simple things like correctly choosing the 27th President of the US from among a list of five not-so-famous Presidents. Then there was identifying eighth Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, naming the site where Lee surrendered to Grant to signal the end of the Civil War, and other such details of American History.
Of course, some who accepted the challenge were history buffs or Poli-Sci majors or perhaps legal eagles of some stripe. I’m sure that they did better than many a Vietnam vet who came home with concussive brain injuries, those of us who memorized every bone and named tendon, vein, and nerve in the human body, and those who had memorized every Psalm and a many biblical passages, etc. The point is that every knowledge domain has its esoterica from which we can separate the well-educated from those who merely have a passing interest in the subject – be it history, medicine, bible studies, or anything else.
Needless to say, I missed more than half of the putative patriotism questions. Those that did well on the test posted their superior scores in response to the test. I was annoyed. Okay, I was pissed. I posted something to the effect that one’s patriotism could not be measured by the number of correct responses to historical trivia. It would be better to ask people whether they had ever had a public service job or served in the armed forces, worked for a charity or volunteered their time and/or money to serve others. You get the general idea.
We are talking FB here, right? I got flamed by any number of self-righteous conservatives who derided my ignorance of US administrivia as the sign of a libtard – which, to be entirely honest, I am proud to be. Sigh.
I simply disengaged from what was probably a band of Tea Party patriots. These past few months, we have seen real patriots like Liz Cheney and Adam Kissinger put careers on the line in the service of the principles on which our country was founded. I agree with these two on almost nothing except that voting is an obligation of citizenship, a privilege, and an honor. The true patriots of late are all the citizens who have voted and who did not lose faith in our form of self-rule (call it a democracy or a republic, I don’t care) even when one party ran a slate of candidates many of whom were willing to eat a bowlful of Donald Trump’s feces, spoonful by spoonful, while smiling and telling the rest of us that it was delicious ice-cream.
The voters are the true patriots.