Bloggledygook: Independence Day.

Recently, I was locked in a discussion with a sociologist friend who contends that displays of patriotism leads inevitably to nationalism and ultimately to fascism. This is a commonly held theory among some academics that has gained some adherents, especially in the wake of September 11, and is perhaps most famously enunciated in Katha Pollitt's scurrilous article in The Nation just after the attacks when she wrote "The flag stands for jingoism and vengeance and war."

Presumably, Ms Pollitt considers me and many of my neighbors who are putting out our flags today jingoistic and vengeful. That not all of us supports the war apparently doesn't matter.

But in my most charitable moments, I suppose that Ms Pollitt doesn't really hate the flag so much as her version of the union that flag symbolizes. I say "her version" because what she describes is not the nation that I recognize. That's her right, of course, but as we witness nascent democracies coming to millions through the direct intervention of the United States, her argument weakens every day.

Yes, there are mistakes and setbacks and continuing horrors. This is, after all, a war.

Yes, there have been times when our nation has not lived up to the ideals and principles that we love to espouse. I'd count them out, but I'm certain that there are others who have already done so and the duplication of efforts has always been a pet peeve of mine.

No, we are not perfect, although there is considerable evidence that on balance the United States has struggled and striven to not only celebrate and endorse the cause of freedom, but to foster an atmosphere where freedom would have its best chance of surviving. The very fact that Katha Pollitt was met with no governmental harassment following the publication of her article demonstrates the bankruptcy of her argument.

There is, and likely will always be, a pointed fear that the United States will descend into dictatorship coming from both the right and the left. The right warns against the encroachment of governmental power as presaging a neo-communist revolution while the left sees little but there own voices left to keep the country from swinging to an ultra-nationalist, fundamentalist oligarchy.

P-shaw. (Note: this is where I stick my head into the ground and open myself up to varying degrees of insults from right-and left-winged ideologues who are already convinced that I'm an idiot).

Loving one's country and appreciating the collective blessings of liberty doesn't, by default, lead to fascism. Wanting one's country to do better and sincerely criticizing government policies need not cast a person as a closet commie. We have such a country that not only listens to, and fires from the stands back at the likes of Katha Pollitt and Pat Buchanan, but affords them a nice living while doing it.

When I was in high school, I was tapped to write in an essay contest. The subject was "The role of the rebel in society." Namely, the instructions were to describe the role of the rebel in society and support your viewpoint for or against. My answer to the question was "No." I thought I had just coined a Gertrude Stein-like bon mot that would travel with me through a brilliant career and someday be one brick in the fortress of my legend.

My English teacher thought otherwise. "Knock it off," she deadpanned when I handed in my paper. "Either take this seriously or not at all."

I failed in writing that essay. It was stilted and not at all me. I'm fairly certain it contained some references to Don Quixote. Don't ask. When my teacher asked me what the hell happened, I couldn't tell her that I had failed to realize that what I was trying to do was win a contest rather than speak my mind. I kept my eyes on the prize and forgot all about my craft.

We have forgotten our craft in America and we focus not on speaking our minds so much as winning an argument and changing the minds of everybody else. The contest has become something like who can imagine the worst thing that America can become, all the while not even noticing that almost miraculously, the union chugs along more or less intact, patched back together after every seemingly fatal blow.

Each side likes to cite some egregious argument or action by the other and add the tag line "not the America I know," which is absurd because if one is paying any attention at all whatever affront is being described is exactly the America we all know.

This is America:

And this is America:

I find it interesting that both war protesters and war supporters choose to express their feelings using the same color scheme.

It is also interesting to me that nobody really ever bothered to burn the flag of the Soviet Union and I'm not so sure what the message would be if, say, the Tricolor was put to flame. Same colors, different impact.

But this isn't about a flag. America is set ablaze constantly by rebels and radicals and like the phoenix, re-coalesces and springs forth anew. That, perhaps, is why the union has lasted as long and has spread its influence so wide. Where many nations have forced their rebels into prison or exile, America puts them front and center, in magazines and newspapers, on cable and radio, in the blogosphere.

If there is anything to the American genius it is to be so vastly diversified that no one ideology can hold sway for too long. And although there are many now who for one reason or another think that America is headed straight to hell, whether because we are being overrun my Mexican illegals, Islamist terrorists, Christian fundamentalists, The International Jewish Conspriracy, Capitalists, Communists, polluters, tree huggers, Republicans, Democrats, flag wavers and flag burners, the real truth is that most of us don't think that our fellow Americans are bent on some maniacal mission to destroy the country.

We all have our valid complaints and our own theories as to where the country is heading. But only the most radical among us doesn't, deep down, thank whatever or whoever for the good fortune of being born here or welcomed here.

So this Independence Day I say: America, Love it, Leave it.

As in: I love it. Leave it alone. For at least today.

Happy Independence Day.