Educating Conservatives: Today's Lesson: Liberals Do Not Hate the U.S.

American liberals hate this side of the American character.  (White Arkansas citizens protest the desegregation of Little Rock public schools in 1957.)

An anonymous conservative (or a troll posing as one) recently asked this question on Quora:

Why do liberals hate the United States?

Before I answer this question, I’ll ask you this question:

Why do conservatives spend so much time listening to Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Jeanine Pirro, who are right-wing “commentators” (I call them propagandists) and are constantly pounding into people’s heads the same message over and over again: Liberals are out to destroy America! Liberals are evil. Liberals want to turn the U.S. into a socialist hellhole.

Seriously? Do you really believe this? (Apparently you do; otherwise, you would not ask this.)

Now, for my answer.

I’m not a sociologist. I’m not a psychologist. I’m not even a historian, even though that was my strong minor in college. Nevertheless, I’m well-educated and well-read, so I think I’m qualified enough to make the following assertions.

1. Liberals, by and large, do not hate the United States. They might be opposed to social injustices, racism, sexism, unchecked capitalistic practices that are governed solely by the profit motive, or disagree (often vehemently) with the government’s foreign and domestic policies. Some, especially those who were young adults during the Vietnam era, think that many of America’s military adventures since that tragic war have been carried out to benefit the military-industrial complex rather than their stated purposes, such as the Iraq War of 2003–2011. Others think that America can’t live up to the ideals enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution until women, ethnic minorities, and LGBQT persons are treated equally, fairly, and with dignity.
2. Many (not all) conservatives are convinced that anyone who does not agree with their regressive, “we don’t want change” attitudes hate America. They don’t see that many of the tenets they hold dear (distrust of new ideas, an almost atavistic anti-immigrant streak, the belief that you aren’t really American unless you are white, Christian, and worship authority figures almost blindly) are actually the antithesis of what America stands for.

So, no, Quora User. Liberals don’t hate the United States.

We do, however, hate injustice, racism, authoritarianism, and sexism, as well as ignorance, lack of empathy, and the disregard for human dignity that passes for “conservatism” in the 21st Century.