Liberal Faces Horrible Dilemma: How To Cheer At The Olympics Without Appearing Patriotic

03 Aug, 2012 by John Hawkins

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You may have never realized how tough it is for an American liberal when the Olympics roll around. On the one hand, it’s an event that naturally lends itself to patriotism because the teams are broken down by nations. On the other hand, liberals don’t like America very much and the idea of publicly showing love for their country appalls them.

Here’s leftie David Sirota explaining it in a beyond-parody column called, “Don’t chant ‘U.S.A.!’ It’s liberal Americans’ Olympic dilemma: How do they root for their countrymen without being jingoistic?”

And yet, as I’ve grown older, I find my “U.S.A.!”-chanting reflex increasingly interrupted by pangs of discomfort, and not because I’m ashamed of our country or our Olympians, but because the relationship between American nationalism and the Olympics has been slowly infused with a different – and politicized – meaning. In short, chanting the initials of our nation seems less like it did in 1984 than it has since 1992.

…In this sense, the shrieks of “USA!” for our athletes take on a “doth protest too much” quality. Our shiny medallions and our patriotic braying reassure us that, despite our slipping world standing, we at least still kick international ass in the competition that gets the highest Nielsen ratings. Meanwhile, the downward standard of living trends persist at home and anti-Americanism festers abroad among a community of nations that often perceives us to be more trash-talking aggressor than humble friend. As if deliberately perpetuating the cycle, our Olympic victories – and celebrations of those wins – then (wrongly) convince us of our ongoing superiority, while robbing those weaker nations of any wins that might give them a fleeting feeling of self-empowerment or sovereignty against us. In other words, we are further distracted, and they further emasculated by us militarily, economically, geopolitically and, every four years, athletically. And so the cycle continues…

Noting all of this isn’t to pretend I’ll be rooting for some other nation. A boy can mature beyond his infantile displays of hyper-patriotism, but the sense of American solidarity will always remain. That means in every individual contest I watch, I’ll almost certainly be pulling for the red-white-and-blue (and probably with the occasional “USA!” outburst).

However, I’ve outgrown the lust for an overpowering victory that has us, medal-count-wise, leave everyone else in the dust. I’ve outgrown it because while I know our athletes deserve our support and respect, I also know that the same respect is due all the competitors from all the nations at the games – and respect is something wholly different from complete conquest.

It’s a truism we should remember when watching the Olympics – and when contemplating the larger world.

Why can’t liberals be honest instead of always doing this tap dance? They don’t want to wave the flag, they think it’s gauche to chant “USA, USA, USA,” they view themselves as citizens of the world, they minimalize all the good things about this country and all the great things we’ve done for the world, they have 34 complaints about America they want to let you know about – but they don’t want to admit they’re not patriotic.

Conservatives don’t have to publicly tell people they’re not: “ashamed of our country”: or say things things like,: “I’ll almost certainly be pulling for the red-white-and-blue,”because it already shows in the way that they behave. In other words, no one would be wondering in the first place. Liberals like Dave Sirota are always the ones who have to make those sort of claims because if they didn’t say that, you’d easily reach the correct conclusion, which is that they’re unpatriotic and don’t love this country.

PS:: I’m not saying that every liberal is unpatriotic and every conservative loves his country just as I wouldn’t say that every conservative wants to cut the size of government while every liberal wants to grow it. But, there’s a reason people associate small government and patriotism with conservatives while they associate big government and a lack of patriotism with liberals. It’s no coincidence that you regularly see articles like this from the left; it’s a reflection of the ideology that has enslaved them.