The Role of a Patriot
“It’s gotta settle down for the good of America” – Governor John Kasich, Ohio
“The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic.” – Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes
Tradition holds that Americans argue ‘like Hell’ about the Presidential election, then, after the votes are cast and the dust settles, take the win or swallow the loss, and bind together in support. Even after the highly questionable Bush v Gore election of 2000, with the dubious outcome decided by the Supreme Court, the country came together behind a President in crisis nine months later on September 11th.
Trump supporters, with historical justification, feel that the nation owes the same to the current President. They are increasingly frustrated with the growing drumbeat of opposition to Trump, not just with the Mueller investigation, but the daily commentary from Twitter to the New York Times. The publication of Michael Wolff’s book, Fire and Fury, rubs even more salt in the wound. They feel that Trump is the duly (fair and square) elected President, and America should get behind him, or get out of the way.
Leave aside, they say, the eight years of President Obama when the opposition used every means to thwart his agenda. Let go of the “birther movement,” Merrick Garland’s Supreme Court nomination, the sixty times the House of Representatives voted to abolish part or all of the Affordable Care Act, and Trey Gowdy’s $8 million Benghazi investigation. Get over the Russian involvement in the 2016 election from Facebook to voting machines. The behavior of the right should not determine the norm. More simply, two wrongs shouldn’t make a right (or a left).
An American Patriot is someone who believes in this country and the historical foundations that make it “special.” A Patriot believes in “American Exceptionalism:” that the United States is unique as an example of Democracy and a leader in the world, a “shining city on the hill” (as President Reagan would say.) So what should be the role of a Patriot in the Trumpian world?
The Patriot’s problem is this. Should they follow the lead of Ohio’s John Kasich, a Republican conservative who has been a leader in opposition to President Trump? Kasich states, despite his opposition, that we must “settle down,” and get on with the business of governing America. Even Democrats have taken a similar stand, with Leaders Pelosi and Schumer remaining focused on the agenda, and dampening loose talk of impeachment and removal.
Following that traditional line, Democrats need to concentrate on the election of 2018, win the House and even the Senate, and return the Government to the “status quo” of shared power. In this way, they can protect the causes that the Trump administration seems so determined to destroy. Whatever Mueller comes up with (given that the current Republican Congressional investigations will ultimately be rigged) we’ll deal with then.
Others feel a more immediate terror with Donald Trump at the helm. Not only do they see America’s progress being rolled back, from voting rights to environmental advances to medical care; but they see a Presidency barely in control. The greatest fear: what if there is another 9/11, will this President, through action or neglect, put us in even greater danger? Tweets about the size of his button and stories about a five hour White House workday, do nothing to alleviate that fear.
What then, should be the role of a Patriot, of a loyal American citizen? Is it to sit silently while the United States is dismantled behind the cloud of Trump tweets and the chaos of the White House? Or should the Patriot speak out, calling out each failure and each abridgment of citizen rights. Supreme Court Justice Holmes stated that free speech does not extend to shouting “fire in a crowded theatre.” The exception, of course, is if the theatre IS on fire.
