So Rudy Giuliani doesn’t think Obama loves America. The media seems shocked, but conservatives have long claimed that liberals don’t love America. This always surprises me because I occasionally listen to conservative talk radio and occasionally watch Fox News, and I constantly hear the things about America that conservatives hate.
They hate the media: “Liberal, Lame-Stream Media.” They hate the culture. They hate the decadent American culture in general, but particularly hate music, television, and fashion. They generally hate the movies and left-wing Hollywood, unless of course it produces a movie they like, e.g. “American Sniper.”
They hate the government. They hate the government in general, but particularly hate the IRS and the EPA.
They hate academia: “Bunch of pointy-headed intellectuals.” (Don’t forget that the American higher education system is the envy of the world. Students from around the world flock here to study.)
They hate the legal system: “Frivolous litigation.”
They hate entire regions of the country. “Taxachusetts.” “The Left Coast.” They hate cities. They hate urban America, and everything it represents to them, like minorities and multiculturalism. In fact they seem to really dislike minorities and immigrants.
They hate liberals. They really really hate liberals. So in other words they hate roughly 40% of the American population. But if you combine liberals with immigrants and minorities, there's a good chance that they hate the majority of the American population.
Sometimes I find it hard to figure out what they do love.
They claim to love the Constitution, but they hate entire sections of it, like the First Amendment (see the decadent American culture), the Fourth Amendment (unreasonable search = get out of jail free), and the Fifth Amendment (right to remain silent, really?). They want to repeal the Sixteenth Amendment (Federal Income tax) and the Seventeenth Amendment (direct election of Senators). And they really really despise the Fourteenth Amendment (equal protection = special rights.) Just wait until the Supreme Court strikes down bans on same sex marriage based on the Fourteenth Amendment. How long do you think it will take before they start talking about repealing the Fourteenth Amendment?
Of course they do love the Second Amendment. I will give them that. They love it so much that they think it should supersede all other Constitutional rights.
They love the military. But they are perfectly willing to denigrate veterans if they disagree with their politics (see, e.g. John Kerry and Max Cleland), and they are perfectly willing to mock military operations if they dislike the Commander in Chief (see, e.g. missile strikes on ISIS, or unsuccessful Seal raid in Yemen).
The love the Red States. Except, of course, for the liberals, minorities, and urban centers in those states.
And they love American history. Except it is a fractured fairy-tale history that whitewashes out all of the bad stuff. In fact, in the game of “Hate America,” I think conservatives win, hands down.