on the contrary, it is unpatiotic to not criticize policy that harms this country

Rep. Wilson: Any Criticism Of ‘American Policy’ Is Unpatriotic

Today on CBS’s Face the Nation, Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) defended Gov. Sarah Palin’s (R-AK) new comments that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) is “someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country.” When host Bob Schieffer asked Wilson if she was therefore implying that Obama is “unpatriotic,” Wilson refused to disagree, noting that Obama has criticized “American policy”:

WILSON: Well, he has talked down about America. You know, we’ve always had this history of saying, “Well, you know, politics ends at the water’s edge.” It didn’t for Barack Obama. He’s been critical not only of the President but of American policy and hence has kind of a negative view of America in the world. That’s not unusual frankly among liberals in kind of post-Vietnam America, to say that America is the problem.

The Bush administration has been setting American policy for the past eight years. Therefore, any criticism of the Bush administration, according to Wilson, is unpatriotic. This category doesn’t just include Obama and other “post-Vietnam America” liberals, but also military officers, former Bush administration officials, the Supreme Court, and the majority of the American public who disapprove of Bush and his policies. Even Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has tried to criticize Bush’s policies, in an effort to separate himself from the current administration.

Criticizing the Bush administration’s policies doesn’t mean that a person doesn’t believe America can be a “force for good,” as Wilson alleges. Instead, it recognizes that destructive policies over the past eight years have diminished America’s “exceptional” status. Countries around the world once held a predominantly positive view of the United States. Under Bush’s destructive policies, however, those views have plummeted.

(Think Progress)
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"America - love it or leave it" was never a sane idea - because we love it, we need to return it to its rightful place as a respected leader in the world instead of a feared aggressor.