Anti-Americanism

The recent news about the high school geography teacher who delivered diatribes against the United States is not surprising. In my own student days, I encountered a left wing to right wing ratio of around 30 to 1 of those teachers who would express opinions and that was in political science classes. Nowadays, creative writing and drama professors are apt to rant about the evils of the Bush administration at the slightest provocation, such as a glance at a headline. In the sixties, one could argue with professors and never encounter retaliation. I’m not sure if the new breed is that tolerant.

Let the geography teacher keep his job. The Constitution protects his speech, his students probably know the guy is a buffoon, and if we fire every buffoon some academic departments may not be able to function. A larger issue, however, is reflected in the case.

Dennis Prager once observed – and I paraphrase – that if you knew someone who said, “My spouse is dumb, corrupt, and racist but I love him/her,” you would conclude that the relationship may be accurately described in various ways but “loving” would not be one of them.

So it is, Prager continued, with anti-Americanism. You meet people who routinely describe the United States as corrupt, racist and imperialistic but then deny that they are anti-American. The liberal reporter and presidential biographer Richard Reeves encountered this phenomenon years ago:

“I remember Senator George McGovern coming to New York late in 1971 to appear at a dinner of liberal Democrats and Liberal party members opposed to Alex Rose, the Liberal’s authoritarian leader, and beginning a speech by saying, “It’s always good to be with real Americans, people who love their country.” The audience just stared at him - they spend their waking hours debating how racist and imperialist the country is; they may not know it, but they hate America.”

He was correct. Many anti-Americans resemble a racial bigot who does not know the extent to which prejudice has warped his viewpoint. “Some of my best friends are black” has become “Some of my best friends are American.”