The New American Commie Pinkos: Liberals

It started after 9/11.

The American flags went up everywhere. All business owners—even the many Turkish owners of gas stations on Long Island, where I live—instinctively flew American flags or included American flags in their business literature. Was it because every one of them was feeling superpatriotic? No. It was because they all sensed that they would be considered un-American, unworthy of having American customers.

Even the pediatrician who cared for my sons at the time wore an American flag pin on her lab coat. Was it because she is a superpatriot? No. It was because she is originally from India and was very afraid that she would be mistaken for an Iraqi and thus thought to be anti-American. When one of her sons was traveling home from college by train, she insisted that he, too, wear an American flag pin, so that he wouldn't be in danger of being beaten by some rabid white American.

And whenever liberals—defined these days as anyone who's not a neocon—speak out against American injustices such as Bush's lying us into the war in Iraq or the torture of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers, they're called anti-American traitors. Apparently, it's not American anymore to have differing opinions. It's not American to speak up when you see something wrong going on. It's not American to even think something wrong's going on.

[Added at 2:40 p.m.:] My husband and I wonder whether the local firefighters would respond to the call should our home ever catch fire. We display a banner (like the one here) on the front of our home that reads "We the people say no to the Bush agenda." Last December, firefighters came down our street in their usual pre-Christmas mini parade, one of the firefighters dressed as Santa and others tossing candy to any children who came out to watch. The firefighters all looked cheerful until our anti-Bush banner came into their line of vision. They began gesturing angrily at our home and mumbling to one another. I couldn't hear what they said because I was indoors behind closed windows, but I'm sure they thought us traitors for publicly airing our view. [end of addition]

The right-wing thought police remind me very much of the McCarthyism of the 1940s and early 1950s, the witch hunt for Communists that ended the careers of so many talented people. Dare to think a little differently from the mainstream, and you're on trial for anti-Americanism. No, there aren't any real trials currently going on, but if we stick to our path of paranoia ...


civil_rights free_speech First_Amendment McCarthyism Bush Iraq PBU44 EditorMom