From Greed is Good to … Freedom Is Good

My years as a “Republican” started as a little girl watching the 1981 inauguration of Ronald Reagan in awe. As a seven-year-old child, I lay on my stomach with my chin cupped in my hands and watched Lee Greenwood perform God Bless the U.S.A. From behind me on the couch, I heard, probably for the first time in my young life, my Vietnam Veteran father crying. Glancing behind me, I saw both he and my mother holding hands and red faced with tears of pride spilling out. And, perhaps from a place of child-like empathy or of just pure love of them, I felt as the warm tears of patriotism began to roll down my cheeks, too.

“Mommy and Daddy really loves this country. So do I.” It’s that simple when you are young.

But, I don’t think I ever looked back again.

I didn’t like sports, even coming of age in the Steel Town that stood behind their teams, even at their lowest points, I had no interest in anything with a ball involved. America was my “team”. And, I loved it as much as the boys and girls around me loved their Steelers. An unabashed patriot. Debating all throughout grade, middle and high school and in college. Tempestuous, opinionated, outspoken … even as time made my views evolve, I never strayed far from the little girl on the floor. I loved my country and that was okay.

The 80’s also brought us the movie Wall Street. “Greed is good”, stated Gordon Gekko and I watched as the yuppie, shoulder pad, power suit, money-loving stereotype stuck to all Republicans like the hair gel in Douglas’s hair. And, I could see where that could come from, as the “right” had embraced the capitalism as the “left” moved more and more towards “equity”. But, I still loved my country and that was okay.

The 90’s brought scandals to the White House. Clinton’s escapades stained the country as fast as it did a blue dress. The little girl on the floor in me looked at him in disgust. I cared less about his politics or policies and more about the dishonor he brought the office and my country. But, it was still my country and I still loved through moments of embarrassment or disgrace. Like our boys loved the Pirates, even when they were not at their best. Patriotism was my version of rooting for the home team.

In college in the 90’s, I was exposed to so many more opinions and would listen to them with open ears and Nirvana playing in the background. Back then, you could fiercely debate and snuff it out as fast as my liberal friends could stamp out a cigarette once a professor would appear around the corner. They could prove a case to me on not inflicting my more Conservative values on them and I could implore that they should then apply the same respect to me. We all would choose freedom was the best way to go. We were all patriots, even while fighting a slightly different war — and, that was okay back then.

The 2000’s began with watching two towers fall and planes drop from the sky. I sat on the floor as a young mother and wept. People were attacking the country I loved, my country. Bush stood with a flag waving on a surreal mountain of pain. And, those same warm tears of a patriot fell from my cheeks. I raged at those that would attack my countrymen as my own little 4-year-old boy watched — he decided in that moment to fight for this country. Fourteen years later, I stood in the paneled room in Pittsburgh and wept as he raised his hand to enter the Marine Corp to follow in all his grandfather’s footsteps and go to defend this country — our country. Patriots.

But, as Obama followed Bush and “Hope and Change” became the mantra the world turned and the people turned. All of a sudden, the country I loved was “fundamentally flawed”. All that I could see changing was that the hope and dreams and patriotism that we once had was being made into something bad, something ugly, something wrong. It became more academic and prestigious to hate our country. People waving flags started to be presented as more of a threat than those burning it. Those that fought in wars under that flag couldn’t sit to watch the Steelers play to escape anymore without watching those kneel for it. It wasn’t “patriotism” anymore … it was “nationalism” and they made what was once beautiful, ugly.

The patriot, little girl in me wept. What was happening and why? And, please … please make it stop. But, it didn’t. It grew. And, as it grew … so did the divide.

President Trump entered the picture and exploded a divide that was already 40 years in the making. As the “left” became increasingly more socialist and the “right” abandoned the far, religious right concepts that made them less popular. President Trump took the patriots – young and old and said, “you have a home here.” And, the crowds to the left viewed that as laughable, scary and deplorable, all at the same time. They didn’t seem to grasp that the more they mocked patriotism, the deeper the bitterness grew. Your insults and condescension were the fuel to the flames of the fire you wanted to stomp out. Yet, you were the ones feeding it — an epic, ironic battle.

The shoulder pads and power suits got replaced with MAGA hats and trucks with American flags flying next to Trump flags. Republicans were all of a sudden the ones fighting for small businesses, let the restaurants open! Live free or die! And, liberals sat perplexed by this new development that looked “cult-like” to them. And, they argued to keep the small businesses closed, which will destroy them and transfer all the money to government or large corporations. Um? Democrats fighting to make the rich … richer? The country became upside down and backwards and no “party” will ever be the same, or perhaps ever really was. Every stereotype that once was — was gone. And, people that fought their entire life for one ideology were seemingly fighting for a completely different one because the letter after the name was the correct one.

The divide will grow further until they can grasp the concept that it wasn’t Trump that many started to fight for … it was patriotism. It was the harshest rebuke of the “America is flawed” ideology. It was a screaming on completely deaf ears, “we may be flawed, but this is MY country and I love it. And, that should be OKAY!” And, the sicker that message made you … the more you mocked it … the wider it spread. One man’s “Nationalism” is the other’s “Patriotism”. And, as you looked down your nose at the rural Americans that loved Trump, you bullied and belittled the backbone of America with an academic elitism that created this unlikely alliance between the capitalists and the populists.

Without even realizing it, you changed a party to a movement.

Republican is no longer this representation of American greed and corporatism. Gordon Gekko is gone. Democrat is NO longer a representation of people for the “little man”. JFK is gone. You are foolish to think those parties actually exist anymore — if they ever really did. Until we start looking at each other for what we are and asking ourselves which side of this turning point in history we want to be on … the divide is going to grow deeper. And, as the chasm grows between us, I will drift away further to the side of love of my country — not a man, not a President, not a party. Because even though 40 years have grown and evolved my political beliefs, inside me still lives the little girl on the floor that will stand up and say,

“If you make me choose a ‘side’ … I will choose to stand with the patriots every time”.