Does the Left Hate America?

The question, on one level, seems preposterous.  After all, however flawed Leftists may be from a conservative perspective, they are fellow Americans.

Yet the conduct of many on the Left makes the query not so easy to dismiss.

Most recent examples concern attacks, destruction and the removal of statues of notable Americans who give offense because of the subjects’ association with slavery as owners, supporters or holders of racist views.  (Abraham Lincoln qualifies on the last point.)

The targets started with Confederate military leaders but has been extended further back into history to include George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, slave holders both.  Even Christopher Columbus (of 1492 fame) is in the Left’s sight.  Although popular culture (incorrectly) credits him with being our land’s first European discoverer, it’s not as if Columbus lived here.  Maybe the objection to his New York City statue is that if America had not been “discovered”, the “horribly flawed” USA would never have come into being!

This attitude, which some characterize as “anti-American”, is not exactly new.  For example, remember President Obama’s “apology” tour in the Middle East?  But the Left’s campaign to tar leading historical figures with the brush of racial prejudice seems to be encountering less public resistance as well as more media encouragement. 

The campaign, itself, speaks volumes about its adherents.  The desire to remove symbols of America’s past – to erase those who, by their human nature, are flawed – is apparently driven by embarrassment that they are Americans.  Are Leftists demonstrating that they are ashamed to be?

To feel that way requires a denial that great progress for black Americans is also a fact of America history.  America today is not the country of the Civil War era.  That denial is a consequence of either colossal ignorance of malevolence against the USA.   In either instance, the denial provides a basis for Leftist hostility, even hatred, toward America.  It’s perceived to be evil and irredeemable to its core.  Given that perspective, how could they love America?