I guess we all have our ideas about what it means to be an American. Some, though, are pretty screwed up.
First, one of the stars of the US Women’s Soccer Team at the World Cup, Megan Rapinoe, said there was “no fucking way” she would go the White House if invited after the tournament. I was listening to a radio call-in show after this and Rapinoe was excoriated. How dare she show such anti-American sentiment while representing her country! These people declared that they would no longer root for the US team and would now hope that they lose.
Setting aside whether it makes sense to root for a soccer team because it comes from your country (I have my serious doubts), how incredibly backward is the attitude of those callers? How misguided is it to think that expressing your disagreement with the President is anti-American? What could be more American?
I’m not saying that because of who, tragically, out President now happens to be. No, it is the essence of what makes us American that we can criticize any President and any Senator and anyone with power. I’d like to see one of the players from North Korea (if there were any) criticize our President’s best bro’, their Dear Leader, and see what would happen to that poor soul.
And speaking of our Dear Leader, he showed us what he thinks it means to be American. It apparently means a display of tanks on the ground (the names of which, by the way, he got wrong) and bombers in the air. And, of course, a display of him.
Trump’s view should come as no surprise. Way back in 1990 in an interview in Playboy, when asked about the tragedy of Tiananmen Square, the Great Pumpkin said about the Chinese leaders who butchered the protesters there, “. . . they were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength. That shows you the power of strength. Our country is right now perceived as weak . . . as being spit on by the rest of the world.”
Sound familiar? Sound American?
We were right 