Patriotic

I think you have a good question Franson about how did the country get more patriotic? But I don't at all believe that the country got more patriotic. Now to start off by analyzing the literal meaning of the word patriotic my arguement is already crushed so lets put that aside. But I believe that the best way to be patriotic in a democratic society is not as many people believe to agree and allow their government to go off on its own seperate from the people. But instead I believe a trully patriotic democratic society would be a society that consistently questions its government, protests it government, a society that votes. I look at the Vietnam era and I truly see the most patriotic society that America has had in the 20th century because the "New Left" was not allowing their government to do what it wanted even though it was against the opinion of the people. So back to your question Franson, I believe that our society's change has been a change towards less patriotism. Of course more people swing their flags and what not but they decided to let Bush go off on his own. A good example is back around the first weeks after 9/11 Bush said to the nation, you are going to have to trust your government and you are going to have to not question us during the crisis. This is very typical of a president during or before war time turning the government away from the fact that it is controlled by the people. And allowing the government to take a firmer grip on the nation without the knowledge and support of the country behind it, as the people of the United States allowed George W. Bush to do, greatly changed this country from better to worse, in that it was one more step in crushing the democracy that was set up to have the people govern the government and the not the other way around.