Letter to the Editor: Not normal times

I don’t say that lightly. Flake’s politics are not my politics. His political beliefs have left me cold and others invoke passionate opposition.

But these are not normal times.

Not when we have a president once described aptly as a “vulgarian” who has employed an advisor to Russian oligarchs, whose first national security advisor openly glad-handed with Putin, who appointed as Secretary of State an oilman awarded a Russian “Order of Friendship” who has systematically begun to dismantle our State Department. A president who cannot bring himself to criticize Putin in any manner. I could go on...

Sen. Flake’s speech reminded me of an essay by George Orwell. I’ve been reading a lot of him lately, in these times everyone should be reading a lot of Orwell. In his essay Notes on Nationalism [it’s freely available online] he illustrates the differences between nationalism and patriotism.

They are not interchangeable ideas.

A patriot holds the values, beliefs, institutions and well-being of their country dear. Patriots don’t vilify minorities or hold their own ethnic heritage above another as white nationalists do. Pride in one’s nation and a willingness to defend it is essential to patriotism.

Nationalism is a different, more aggressive, nastier animal. Heritage is exalted to the exclusion of others, including minorities and those of different points of view. It includes aggression and shows of superiority to other countries as many of the wars of last century have shown.

A patriot doesn’t invoke a hostile government to dish the dirt on an American political opponent. A patriot doesn’t diminish the service of an American who was a prisoner of war in the Hanoi Hilton. A patriot doesn’t engage in a Twitter battle with the parents of a deceased service member.

This president is a nationalist. He encourages dissension, an us-vs-them mentality, a demeaning and diminishing of other Americans in favor of his “good people,” which include white nationalists with torches. His enemies include an American POW and—ominously—a free press.

As wrong as I believe him to be on his politics, Jeff Flake has proven himself a patriot. All of this begs the question for Oregonians; what are you, Greg Walden?

Frank Borghese