Derrick Z: OK To Be Patriotic. Now.

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For years, little would upset liberals more than the suggestion they were less patriotic than other Americans.  The crowd spewing "Bush-Hitler-Genghis-Khan-baby-killers-AmeriKKKa-Ho-Ho-Ho-Chi-Minh"? Great patriots, all.  Bill Ayers trampling a flag?  Dissent is patriotic, dude.

But now that Barack Obama has been elected, comes an admission, unintended as it may be. Yeah, maybe we weren't so much before, but it's cool to be patriotic. Now.  Such can be seen in Derrick Z. Jackson's Boston Globe column of today, 'It's OK to be an American now." From Jackson's opening paragraph [emphasis added]:

Before Obama's victory speech in Chicago, the crowd of 125,000 people said the Pledge of Allegiance. In my 53 years I have never heard such a multicultural throng recite the pledge with such determined enunciation, expelling it from the heart in a treble soaring to the skies and a bass drumming through the soil to vibrate my feet.

Ah-ha. So all those Obama-loving liberals in the crowd had never said the Pledge before with such fervor.  Jackson also cites a black University of Washington professor who gave the columnist his headline, telling him "I guess it's OK to be an American now."  So it wasn't before, apparently.

Are these folks inspired by patriotism, or are they akin to fans of the winning football team chanting "We Are The Champions"? If you only really love your country when your side is in power, what are you?