Taking Our Country Back

Watching a tea party rally on TV, I was struck by the words on a sign which I’d seen on previous occasions. They read “let’s take Our Country Back.” If subject to scrutiny this statement implies more than the obvious. Of course as citizens they have every right to think of America as “their” country. On the other hand those of us who disagree with nearly everything these people advocate are also citizens and consider this our country without having to proclaim it so.

By what measure do they consider this their country and not ours? Surely it isn’t the colonial garb worn at these spectacles. It is quite impressive compared to the civvies the rest of us wear and could have a side benefit in providing work as extras for period piece movies. Come to think of it one of their Senatorial candidates is in perfect sync with the Founding Fathers who wrote into our Constitution that people of unfashionable pigmentation don’t have the same rights as the rest of us.

By definition taking something back means having once owned it. I find it hard to believe that any political group should or can “own” America, depending on its position on matters like health care coverage or, dare I say it, gun control. If such ownership does exist we could claim it was taken from our side in 2000 by one vote, the vote of any of five Supreme Court Justices, take your pick. By this standard we took it back fair and square two years ago by a relatively impressive margin of ten million votes.

For the eight “out” years many of us were disconsolate about the direction in which our country was headed. But it can be said that we showed a lot more class than they are now by refraining from the choreographed tantrums that are sullying our TV screens.