the nature of the discourse, because of the ability to narrowly target one’s audience on niche programming, is much coarser than it has been in living memory

True enough, but we did have this little thing called the Iraq war. A contentious and still hotly debated subject. It's not like flag burning or gay marriage or whether we should have abortions. It was a very unusual event that was extremely emotional - to both sides.

And when you start throwing patriotism into the mix - i.e. where the stance on the Iraq war becomes a defining issue of such - people are going to get hot under the collar. Throw in a highly visceral issue of sanctioned torture and it would be stunning if people didn't start shouting.

These may be one or two issues out of a million that people mostly agree upon, but they mean a lot to both sides of the isle.

BTW, the entire article is very worth reading.

On the other hand, this simple fact was apparently bemusing as all get-out to certain of Kevin Drum's comment section. :)

I do question the patriotism of people who harp on failure, ignore successes, and call our leaders liars or, worse, compare them to Nazis, when they simply disagree with them. Because that's demoralizing and unnecessary. Ditto people who call America a "terrorist nation" or claim we are merely going to war because we are racists or want oil--and that is stuff I've heard constantly, and that too strikes me as unpatriotic. For such things go well beyond, "I don't believe this was the right war," or "I believe we should conduct ourselves differently," that's just saying hateful things about your country.

But getting people to understand that distinction is a constant challenge.

Most people I know get it perfectly. You don't liken America or its President to Nazi Germany, or an oppressive imperialist hegemonic power only interested in oil, or uncritically accept claims that our troops regularly massacre innocent civilians, and then get to call yourself a patriot.

Mind you, there is no law saying you have to be a patriot. You can hate your country all you want--that's your right as an American, after all. But I'm trying to imagine saying to my son, "You're a vile, hateful, murdering rapist, the worst and most horrible person on the planet, but don't question the fact that I love you." Uh, riiiiiight....

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