<p>I get the feeling most liberals don't. I may be wrong, but correct me if I am. Personally, I couldn't love America more. I have a flag in my room by my bed. I carry little "God Bless America" bookmarks. I love our national anthem. I love who we are. I love this land. It's the most wonderful place in the entire world. </p>
<p>What about you? Do you love America?</p>
<p>I love America!</p>
<p>There is no intrinsic reason why America is "better" than any other nation, no reason why America's policies are better than those of any other nation, no reason (other than the accident of birth) why I should love America and not another country. It just happens to be the most powerful nation in the world that I happen to know more than any other country. That's all.</p>
<p>Sure I could love many countries including America, but it so happens that the senses of passion are biologically limited.</p>
<p>For the record, I probably should be glad that so many people are patriotic (so that there are enough volunteers in such a way that there doesn't need to be a draft). I'm just not of the personality type that's inclined towards patriotism. </p>
<p>And for the record, I'm not a modern day liberal (i'm more of a classical liberal).</p>
<p>As a liberal, I love America. I just don't like the direction we are headed in.</p>
<p>Can't betray where I came from. But America too has many things I love.</p>
<p>I love this country. I strongly disagree with its policies, and despise its president, but yes, I do like this country more than others.</p>
<p>And yes I'm also a liberal, but more along the lines of a classical liberal rather than modern day.</p>
<p>Oh, neocons, always confusing dissent with disloyalty.</p>
<p>I'm Libertarian, but I love America.
I think as a daughter of immigrants, I appreciate it more.</p>
<p>Excuse me, I meant libertarian.</p>
<p>Cool, 3 libertarians in a row (myself included).</p>
<p>libertarianism is frightening.</p>
<p>i love america, and i'm pretty much as liberal as it gets.
dissent is patriotic!</p>
<p>I agree with IK. First of all, how would I know if it's the best place in the world -- I've only gone to one foreign country (Canada, but only as far as Niagara Falls). I have an idea that most other people who believe that the U.S. is the best country in the world are equally ignorant.</p>
<p>The only reason why I have reason to like it is if I could relate to the people here better than any other place in the world (although indeed, I cannot), but every other nation in the world would be the same in that aspect. The end result is that everyone thinks that their country is the best country in the world.</p>
<p>And I agree, dissent is patriotic. Our leaders are thick-skulled and won't budge an inch from their badly-thought-out plans, which is how we got ourselves into this stupid Iraq war business - first of all, entering it, and secondly, "staying the course". I'd argue that the latter policy has made a bad thing into a truly devastating thing.</p>
<p>Canada's pretty cool. I like Canada. Plus their dollar's stronger than the Bush Peso. I'd like to go to New Zealand sometime though. I hear it's beautiful.</p>
<p>To the OP: have you been to a lot of other places?</p>
<p>Let me point out a couple of things -- just random facts that came into my head -- before answering whether I love America:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>According to the McKinsey Institute (of the consulting firm), by contrast with the other OECD nations, we pay $1,600 more per person for substandard healthcare that doesn't cover nearly the percentage of people that the other OECD nations do. And we tell ourselves, often, that our healthcare is better.</p></li>
<li><p>I've lived in several other nations, and there is one thing I've noticed a lot with Americans that differs from those in other countries. People in many other countries are more generous with their time and their things, often, than Americans. While this is a massive generalization and really depends on the country one is using for comparison, I could roll out tons of examples indicating that Americans are not very generous on many levels.</p></li>
<li><p>We have gone to war, which was started on false pretenses, over the past few years to a country where there was a dictator that was terrorizing a bunch of folks in Israel and his general environs, but he actually wasn't succeeding really in threatening us directly. We took him out, and this was on its own a good thing probably -- except that his death didn't occur in a vacuum. The war we started didn't go the way we, or at least the Administration, expected. We have been directly responsible for millions of people fleeing the country and tens if not hundreds of thousands of people dying in that country. This was done in the name of democracy and for our security. Serious lies and misinformation were spread to justify this action. What really kills me is that Americans don't get, often, why there are many people who hate us and want us dead. It's not always envy or because they fear us. Sometimes it's because we have been a force for a great amount of badness in the lives of many people. One can argue that this badness was justified because in the greater scheme of things it was aimed at creating more goodness at least for us. That is an argument one can make, but it doesn't erase the badness. And it doesn't erase the fact that some people hate us because of this badness -- and if you spent five minutes in the shoes of these people, you'd understand their hatred.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Actually here is a great short film to watch of a man who essentially predicted 9/11 and who had chosen to become an American as an adult. Pay attention to what he says about chickens coming home to roost.</p>
<p>Now: do I love America? I adore our country. But don't give me this simpleton BS that because I see our warts and things we have done wrong and the fact that there is a lot that we don't do as well as other countries actually and say I am a liberal America-hater. That's a plea to ask people to be stupid. </p>
<p>Now I could easily have emphasized a lot of great things in this post about America and said what a great country we live in. I certainly choose to stay in the country of my birth, and I count many people as friends who made huge sacrifices and took huge risks in their lives to move here. There are many wonderful things about the US.</p>
<p>But please, please don't ask me to say that our s*** doesn't stink -- as that of pretty much every other nation in the world does. And please don't ask me to not try to identify sensible ways to make my country better -- a good healthcare system, pulling out from Iraq, etc. If you think that proper respect for our nation involves silence and non-dissent, you should go live in North Korea.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I get the feeling most liberals don't [love America]. I may be wrong, but correct me if I am.
[/quote]
You're wrong.</p>
<p>yeah you're wrong. and you sound like a redneck.</p>
<p>I'm liberal and I love my country. However, I try not to blind myself to our imperfections, or when we do something wrong. Like invading Iraq ... or re-electing W.</p>
<p>i'm a moderate, and i don't "love" america (i'm more into loving people than places :p)...</p>
<p>ehm. i am from China. i like the friendly people. everywhere is ok. i never been to USA, but i have some friends there, they like USA very much. only aspect i donot like about USA, it is the Iraq war.</p>
<p>I love our country...my ancestors fought for our freedom in the Revolutionary War, my ancestors fought to keep this country united in the Civil War, my family fought to keep our world safe during WWII and I married the son of immigrants who came here LEGALLY after waiting ten years to get their papers. I tear up when I hear the national anthem, I fly my flag faithfully, I cry for soldiers buried at Arlington and our other military cemetaries and I bless them for the sacrifices they gave ME and MY FAMILY...including the right to vocally disagree with our President and our congress without having our tongues chopped off or being sent to a gulag. You bet I love my country. Though I haven't been to too many other places in this world, I know more people want to come here than anywhere else on earth. Ask yourself why....OPPORTUNITY.</p>
<p>I think the fundamental reason "liberals" are labeled as hating America is because most liberals have transcended the need to define themselves by the boundaries of a nation while most conservatives hold tight to a tribal boundary. It is why there is so much willingness to fight a war at the drop of a hat. If you look historically, liberals have supported all the wars that made sense (Revolutionary, Civil, WWII) and opposed those that did not (Korean, Vietnam, Iraq). I'm not sure about WWI. Liberalism is much more intellectually driven and less emotional.</p>
<p>We live in a global, integrated society and most liberals have been exposed to aspects of that global, integrated society that make it hard to claim one nation is better than another. For many, Sweden, Japan, or France are far better for who they are than the U.S. That is a big reason why the urban coasts and college towns across the country are liberal - very diverse cultures, very global perspectives that expose people to views outside the one you espouse. </p>
<p>This conservative isolationist value has been around forever - it was the conservatives who wanted to remain beholden to the British Crown and keep the states separate and the liberals who fought to unify the states into the United States back in the 1700s. I think we're approaching another point where we will soon fight that same battle as we unify Europe and the Americas under a common government. Many conservatives will be very outraged, as they were in the 1700s, but the liberals will prevail because it is human nature to break down boundaries rather than build them up.</p>
<p>Note, however, that being "Republican" and being "conservative" are not the same thing. I am not speaking of Republicans here. That is a totally different animal, and one with a great deal of validity and importance as we globalize.</p>
<p>You sound very young. I used to be that patriotic when I was in high school / early college. Then I began to see the larger world and see that I am first and foremost a human. So long as we define ourselves by anything less, we will continue to fight each other.</p>