When arguing politics with “real” Americans (a lot of them assume I am less than real somehow, but let’s leave this for another day), I often get this: “Hey, why do you want America to resemble your own country?” Come to think of it, a lot of fellow Russian Americans, most of whom are about 20 miles to the right of Ted Cruz on the ole political spectrum, ask me the same. “How dare you be a lefty? Didn’t you get enough of that in the USSR?”
It’s not as unfair a question as it may sound. If you look hard enough, you can find a tiny area of overlap between the “USSR” and the “Democratic Party” circles on your Venn diagram. I mean, yeah, we did have free health care and education, sure. We also had criminalized homosexuality (and, for a time, abortion), strict patriarchy, a puritan fashion and musical culture, and loud, over-the-top, militaristic patriotism, and I am going to give you three guesses as to which party’s circle will overlap in those areas.
In fact, nothing in America makes me cringe with the unwelcome sense of Soviet recall like the instances of mandatory rituals of devotion to the symbols of state. It absolutely boggles my mind that anyone can ever find them “American” or representative of freedom.
Recently, a Washington Post columnist opined on Fox News that Megan Rapinoe of the US national women’s soccer team cannot protest the anthem “while wearing this uniform”, though it’s probably a safe guess that for the people in Fox’s target audience protesting the anthem is a no-no in any type of attire. Here is a quick and fun game you can play at home. Find a person in a soccer uniform for whom protesting their country’s anthem is not in any way forbidden. Read the name of the country on that person’s uniform. Bingo, you have just located a truly free nation!
Also recently, the President of the United States, as has depressingly become his custom, had blundered into another issue over which he should have zero authority in order to gin up his ever so ginnable base. Apparently, the council of a small city in Minnesota has decided to not recite the Pledge of Allegiance before its meetings. This may be the happiest and most content place in America, since this is the issue some of its citizens decided to vehemently and passionately protest, something they are sure to keep doing more fervently now that the “leader of the free world” has pitched in with them. Here is another fun game: try to think of an adjective for a nation in which expressing ritualized loyalty to the state is mandatory and see if “free” is one of them.
It takes me zero seconds to think of one, because this is precisely the type on nation I grew up in. We had to recite the Oath of Loyalty to Lenin and the Communist Party on the day we were inducted into the Young Pioneers Organization (think boy scouts, only less voluntary dorkiness and more mandatory communism).
“Here, in front of my comrades, I solemnly swear to love my Motherland, to live and study as dictated by the great Lenin and as taught by the Communist Party, to always follow the laws of the Soviet Pioneers.” Do you think that upon arrival in the USA as a high school junior fresh out of the Soviet educational system I wasn’t immediately reminded of this garbage as soon as we were asked to get up, put our hands on the heart and recite the Pledge in my new American school? Holy crap, was I ever!
Yes, nothing spells out “the beacon of freedom” as when the country’s chief wielder of executive power screams at you instructing on how exactly you should love your Motherland. Nothing shows the world how highly you value the dignity of the individual as making everyone chant in unison with some kind of a sanctified arm gesture thrown in for good measure. Nothing respects the Constitution more than compelling the citizens to invoke God in a compulsory loyalty oath.
If this doesn’t seem in any way weird to you, I understand. Hey, it’s something you grew up mumbling in home room without caring much for, am I right? But if you talk to an immigrant from a country like mine, you will see a different perspective. Even those of us who make Sen. Cruz look like a liberal snowflake aren’t quite comfortable with the show of forced loyalty. The anthem standing, the heart-clutching, the memorized mantras. Way too Soviet for comfort, guys.
Here is a crazy idea. A truly free nation shouldn’t need any rituals of loyalty at all. A nation where people can truly be proud and dignified doesn’t have to apply any patriotism litmus tests. A nation of citizens, not subjects, shouldn’t be in the business of forcing anyone to respect its symbols. Because, as your moms have surely taught you, respect is earned, not ordered.
Mother Russia, through one of its innumerable pearls of folk wisdom, has taught me that “you cannot give orders to the heart.” No matter how steely the hand being held over it is.
Totally agree with you on this point. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences.