ninme

Hugh Hewitt just lost it (as far as Hugh Hewitt can lose it) with a lefty caller with the usual chickenhawk argument. He made some good points in arguing with him, but completely missed The Point. Since I’ve never heard this anywhere else, I think it needs to be repeated, because to miss this point is to miss what lefties with the chickenhawk argument really mean about those of us they’re confronting with it, which is actually outrageous and needs to be addressed as such.

December 11, 2006 – My Firstborn Shall Be Called… Daniel

To avoid being accused of “questioning their patriotism,” I’ll speak of liberals in general, rather than Kerry and Rangel in particular. There is a strong current in liberal ideology that holds that patriotism or nationalism is, at best, naive. This is a popular sentiment among European leftists, and it is voiced more openly over there. Patriotism, particularly American patriotism, is seen as evidence of a lack of sophistication. In this view, feeling patriotic is only for rubes who are being manipulated (by conservatives, of course). The idea that something greater than oneself might actually be worth fighting for, and risking death for, is “obviously” wrong, and no one in the know seriously believes it. Since our troops have signed up to do that, it follows they are either foolish, lacking any good alternative or both.

This also explains the prevalence of the “chickenhawk” attack meme. Whether or not someone personally served in the military has little bearing on the validity of his opinion on matters of war and peace, of course. However, to an antiwar type who believes implicitly that patriotism and military service are only for dummies, lack of military service in a “hawk” is a gotcha. The liberal projects his own disdain for patriotism and the military onto the hawk. The hawk, in the liberal’s mind, must also recognize that it’s all a cynical game, since he didn’t fall for the scam.

Which means, of course, that we’re sending in thousands of sweet dumb puppies to die hideously for something that we don’t believe in, which is also why, obviously, it follows that we have to be doing it for oil, or Halliburton, or the Jooooooos, or a preference for dead brown people.

Liberals also view conservatives as dimwitted. Since the military is much more conservative than the general population, that also fits the “troops are stupid” theme. So mere facts and statistics are not going to persuade the liberals otherwise. They don’t even realize how condescending and obnoxious this attitude is.

Neither do most conservatives.