Right wing patriotism is something like that sleazy guy in high school trying to get his girlfriend to have sex with him--"if you really loved me baby, you'd do this." So it goes on the right: real "patriots" support torture, illegal search and seizure, and any number of unconstitutional policies. If you really loved your country they say, you'd support these things too.
So I get pretty excited when I see a candidate defending the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution against anti-American Republican demagoguery. Palin criticized Obama at the RNC, saying, "Al-Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America and he's worried that someone won't read them their rights." Obama's response was inspired:
But Obama, who taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago for more than a decade, said captured suspects deserve to file writs of habeus corpus.
Calling it "the foundation of Anglo-American law," he said the principle "says very simply: If the government grabs you, then you have the right to at least ask, 'Why was I grabbed?' And say, 'Maybe you've got the wrong person.'"
The safeguard is essential, Obama continued, "because we don't always have the right person."
"The reason that you have this principle is not to be soft on terrorism. It's because that's who we are. That's what we're protecting," Obama said, his voice growing louder and the crowd rising to its feet to cheer. "Don't mock the Constitution. Don't make fun of it. Don't suggest that it's not American to abide by what the founding fathers set up. It's worked pretty well for over 200 years."
Loving America means not violating the principles that distinguish us. Demanding that Americans accept violations of their fundamental civil liberties in the name "patriotism" and "security" is the opposite of loving one's country. Put simply, without those things, there's no America left to protect.
--A. Serwer
