Does Michelle Obama Hate America?

Predictably, the right wing fools are in the process of getting all outraged about Michelle Obama's "proud of my country" statement. Even probable Republican presidential nominee John McCain's silly looking wife Cindy got in the act, sarcastically saying yesterday in reference to Michelle Obama, "I am proud of my country," she said. "I don't know about you. If you heard those words earlier, I am very proud of my country." Aside form Cindy McCain's very unimpressive response, nearly every political show on radio and TV featured the story, and Bill O'Reilly really went there when he said, "I don't want to go on a lynching party against Michelle Obama unless there's evidence, hard facts, that say this is how the woman really feels. If that's how she really feels -- that America is a bad country or a flawed nation". Although I could write an entire article about the insensitivity and idiocy of the O'Reilly quote, I think it would be more productive to briefly explore how this whole incident illustrates an attitude that has always bugged me, and that is the childish, sweep everything under the rug, fake-ass patriotism that too many Americans choose to engage in.

First of all, anyone who cannot understand what she was really trying to say - that she is for the first time in her "adult life" proud of the political engagement of the American people - is probably dumb enough that they will be voting Republican anyway come November - so there's no loss there - although there are probably some Democrats who would criticize Mrs. Obama for this as well. But, the true meaning of her statement is even more obvious within the context of the Obama campaign - which has from the very start emphasized change initiated by the people from the bottom up. But, as to my larger point, what is wrong with Michelle Obama saying this in the first place? Are we a too immature, fragile and repressed society to discuss and make an honest assessment about what there is to be proud of and not proud of as Americans?