Okay, maybe this belongs in the "Phrases That Anger Me Thread," but I have to respond to this. Yes, there are a lot of liberals here in California. I happen to be one. And I happen to embrace the label, notwithstanding the long campaign of right wing nuts to make "liberal" a perjorative. Would you like to live in a country that denies the franchise to half the adult population, that makes its darker citizens pee in separate urinals, that encourages corporations to form monopolies and dump toxins in the rivers? (Never mind that last one, if you voted for W, you probably do.)

I love my country deeply and so does everyone of my liberal friends and family. That's why we volunteer, serve on local governments, join the military and the Peace Corps, donate our training to strengthen democracies around the world. I know that conservatives love their country too. But it seems to me that many of them love their country like a three year old loves his mommy, and no one can say anything critical of Mommy.

On the other hand, I love my country like an adult. I want it to do well and to do good. I want it to be well-respected within the community of nations, the community that we ought to lead by example. When I see our country represented by a cabal that wasn't legitimately elected, that squandered the good-will of the entire globe, that sends young people to die in a war based on pretext, that hasn't any sort of strategy for getting out of that war, that attacks freedom in the name of freedom, then I'm mightily disappointed.

Not because I hate America but because I love it. And because I love it, I'll proudly criticize our leaders when I think they're representing it poorly. That's the most American thing you can do.