"I Want My Country Back" Is Back

Bumper Sticker

After the recent controversy surrounding the use of the Confederate Flag, a racist and conservative element has intensified a propaganda campaign under the banner, "I Want My Country Back," featuring bumper stickers because they are not too good at writing complete sentences.

The slogan has a patriotic and nostalgic ring to it, but it also suggests that "someone" -- a malevolent ogre, perhaps -- has stolen the country. We are apparently invited to fill in the name of the villain or villains. The promoters probably want you to fill in the blank with one of the following: President Obama, liberals, Latino immigrants, atheists, gays/lesbians, evolutionists, socialists, Muslims, environmentalists, intellectuals, or that whole unwashed conglomerate known as "non-Christian."

It is inconceivable to these people that someone would have the temerity to suggest that the country was stolen by: the NRA, the Tea Party, white supremacists, the religious bigots, the creationists, big oil, big coal, Wall Street oligarchs, or radical Christians.

Then there is the question who the "I" is in the slogan. It would have two different interpretations for a Donald Trump or a Bernie Sanders.

Ignoring the lack of clarity in such a bumper sticker, the most important question becomes: What country do they want back? a country that:

• practices slavery
• allows lynchings
• steals lands from Native Americans
• allows only white landowners to vote
• allows racial segregation
• ignores domestic violence?

If that indeed is the country they wish to take back, most Americans are thankful that "country" is a thing of the past.

Although some may wish for that kind of country; others of their ilk probably are hoping to take back a country that has no:

•  civil rights legislation
•  labor laws
•  voting rights act
•  national parks
•  Internal Revenue Service
•  Department of Energy
•  Department of Education 
•  Food and Drug Administration
•  Department of Housing and Urban Development  
•  Justice Department.

But the country they really want back is a country without:

• The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)
• Social Security
• Medicare and Medicaid

An almost hysterical fear of socialism has led these people and their politicians to spend their time and treasure trying to dismantle what so many have given their lives to build and protect. 

No matter how desperately these people would like to go backwards, the continued success of this country depends on going forward in a continuing effort to build an egalitarian, just, and compassionate society which exercises wise stewardship of our limited resources.