I am not sure exactly when it happened. Maybe it was during 1968 when the murders of Dr. King and Senator Kennedy made it look as if the country could break apart. Somehow the progressive wing of the party got connected to the disaffected among us and the people who wanted to take advantage of this, and of the achievements of the civil rights movement were able to cobble together a "new majority" and steal the presidency away.


Maybe it was later, when the crook Nixon was able paint a military hero, Senator George McGovern, as some sort of anti-American dupe, to defeat him in the 1972 election (with a little help from the Watergate burglary, enemies lists, bugging of psychiatrist's offices and the like). Karl Rove maintains the same song today: that somehow those who don't share the bleak view of the United States and the world do not value what this country means as much as they do.

Most of this essay was written before this was posted at DailyKos. It is well worth reading as evidence of how They are trying to take our country away from us, and present it as their own.

As obnoxious as that is, it does not seem worthwhile to reply in kind, but simply to express the view on this sad day, a view shared by many, many people who post at DailyKos, TPM and the like, that recognizes what so many have given to allow us first the country our forebears established in 1776, the Constitution that they came up with more than a decade and a half later, and our continued experiment to this day.

It took enormous courage for those first American soldiers to enagage in battle for a cause that was never certain until it succeeded and that same instinct has been repeated over and over throughout our history. I do not support every use made of our military forces throughout our history, but my gratitude to those who fought for our country and particularly on this day, to those who gave their lives, never wavers despite foolish decisions by politicians and military leaders alike.

In recent years, indeed, I have come even to question whether the war that actually gave rise to this holiday (as Decoration Day) was the wisest use of our forces since the cleavage that slavery brought to our nation, dividing us first into slave states and free ones, then into a "north" and "south" with different attitudes and outlook continues to this very day. Maybe it would have been better (maybe it still is) to acknowledge those differences and allow both to exist as cordial neighbors rather than one nation.

But today is no the day for that. It is not, as noted elsewhere this weekend, a day to judge anyone, or to describe the sacrifices of those who believed in this country and what it should stand for as "useless" as someone posted on one of the sites I read for confirmation that there are others out there who love their country, but do not see it the way Dick Cheney does or Richard Nixon did.

At the same time, I am horrified to read the description of those who gave their lives for their country as nothing more than

those who died uselessly in so many wars to protect the privileges of the rich

as some fool did in one of the blogs I follow and treasure these days for their progressive views of our country in what might turn out to be a transformative time.

I was pleased to see I was not the only poster who rejected such nonsense but will repeat only my own comments noting that it was American soldiers made our system of government possible, and who were instrumental in defeating the hatred that swept through Europe more than sixty years ago.

If you want to describe their efforts as a war "to protect the privileges of the rich" you may, because of the sacrifices so many made to protect the privileges of the spoiled.

But, again, today is a day of mourning, with sadness and gratitude (and, yes, along with that, a day for some of us, at least, to get together with family and friends to welcome in the summer.)