Once again, Neptunus Lex spells it out far better than I ever could.
I’ve been in my country’s service, man and boy, for nearly 26 years now. I stood watch and sailed the seas and flew the heights with death flying on my wing when the two great superpowers locked wills and fought by proxy in a contest between personal freedom and democratic choice versus dehumanizing socialist utopianism. I’ve lost far too many friend along the way, both during the cold war and after, to hear someone try to tell me that I’ve been duped by plutocrats and oligarchs.
I have two faiths: Faith in God, and faith in America. But these two faiths occupy separate spheres in my psyche, and I resent like hell when someone tries to use the pulpit or the church to proselytize for a political view not supported by scripture. That’s not what I go there for.
Next, my faith in this country means that I’m fully aware that we make mistakes – we are not always right, and even when right we are not always elegant about explaining ourselves. We crash into the furniture sometimes. While being fully aware of all these things, I am still convinced that their is no greater power for secular good than what we represent, that we are the last, best hope for mankind against the darkness in men’s souls that is always lurking, always waiting for a chance, always testing for weakness. And I’m OK with questioning authority, and I’m fine with politicians paying the price at the polls for flawed judgment or duplicity.
But don’t you dare try to tell me that there’s some straight line vector from Naziism to American democracy, not when my father and his generation spent so much blood and treasure fighting it. No, I won’t even buy a theoretical parralel.
And don’t you dare try to tell me that politicians here don’t pay the price for their malfeasance because we’re not really a democratic country.
Don’t you dare try to tell me that the only path to real democracy is to reject my political views and hew to yours.
Don’t you dare.
I’ve dealt with a couple individuals recently on some forums that I participate on that insist that my political views make me nothing short of a fascist nazi and that I should admit the error of my ways. Lex’s answer is far better than anything than I could come up with.
Hat tip to you, Commander.
