"Patriotism" in Junior's America

Monkey see...

Patriotism, in Junior Bush's brave new America, is really nothing more than jingoism, tribalism, and a tool with which to intimidate and beat down political opposition. What passes for patriotism today is a facade to mask cowardice and greed, and to glorify ignorance and bigotry.

Apparently, to be a patriot today, all you have to do is dress in gaudy red, white, and blue attire, be white, hate Mexicans and gays, and support Junior Bush unreservedly.

...monkey do

But then again, the abuse of the term "patriotism," and the deliberate manipulation of a person's natural love for his/her home is nothing new. Here's what some other people have had to say about the matter:

Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism - how passionately I hate them! --Albert Einstein

A nation is a society united by a delusion about its ancestry and by common hatred of its neighbours. --William Ralph Inge

Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarrelled with him? --Blaise Pascal

Or my favorite:

The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border? --Pablo Casals