In Defense of Dissenters and Veterans

In Defense of Dissenters and Veterans

Harvey J. Kaye: In Defense of Dissenters and Veterans

Shame on Sarah Palin! In her new book, America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag, she resorts to pitting American veterans against American dissenters. In doing so she not only undervalues the American radical tradition?s contributions to the making of American freedom, equality, and democracy, but also the radical-democratic commitments of generations of American veterans.

In a chapter titled ?Why They Serve,? Palin?after berating academics and the ?Hollywood and the media elite? for rejecting ?American exceptionalism??states:

Hollywood stars like nothing better than to stand up on Oscar night and congratulate themselves for their courage in speaking truth to power. They forget?or refuse to acknowledge?that someone is paying the price for their freedom to speak their minds. Dissent may be a form of patriotism, but it?s far from the highest form. Our men and women in uniform own that honor.

Perhaps I should congratulate Palin for actually acknowledging that ?Dissent may be a form of patriotism.? But she is wrong not only about many a Hollywood liberal?not to mention academic and media liberals and progressives?but also about what she proceeds to argue.

Palin writes,

I am reminded of a poem my uncle e-mailed me recently:

It is the veteran, not the preacher, who has given us freedom of religion.
It is the veteran, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the veteran, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the veteran, not the campus organizer, who has given us freedom to assemble.
It is the veteran, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the veteran, not the politician, who has given us the right to vote.
It is the veteran, who salutes the flag, who serves under the flag,
and whose coffin will be draped by the flag.

The poem is all over the Internet. If Palin were just seeking to honor veterans, I?d overlook her inclusion of it in her book. But she uses it not simply to praise vets, but to attack her fellow citizens on the left.

Sentiments aside, the poem is historically wrong. Veterans have defended our rights, not ?given? them to us. Indeed, if we were to ?thank? anyone for ?giving? us our rights?forgetting the fact that the Founders insisted that our rights were ?natural,? that is, given by ?Nature? or ?Nature?s God? (do I really have to remind a Christian conservative of that?)?then surely we must thank ?dissenters.? Freethinkers, abolitionists, workingmen?s advocates, women?s rights activists, populists, socialists, progressives, labor organizers, and civil rights activists?it is they who have ardently fought to realize and extend and deepen our rights, it is they who have bravely struggled to make sure that all Americans are treated equally, and it is they who have repeatedly urged us to redeem and renew America?s historic purpose and promise.

Undeniably, it was veterans who first afforded us independence and the makings of a democratic republic. But those men and women of the 1770s and 1780s were themselves dissenters??patriots? propelled to turn their colonial rebellion into a revolution by the greatest dissenter of a dissenting age, Thomas Paine, the author of Common Sense and The Crisis Papers, who himself served in Washington?s army in 1776.

At the same time, let us not forget that many American soldiers fought the nation?s wars despite the fact that they were denied their rights?none more heroically than the African-American and Japanese-American GIs of the Second World War, who were battling for a ?Double Victory? against Nazism, fascism, and imperialism overseas, and against white supremacy and racism at home.

Clearly, without the heroism and sacrifices of millions of Americans who have defended us against our enemies, we would not have our rights. But without the courage and sacrifices of rebels, radicals, and reformers, we might never have secured our rights. Fortunately, many of our veterans have realized that, serving not only as soldiers, sailors, marines, and flyers, but also as dissenters seeking to make the United States a freer, more equal, and more democratic country.