Rooting for the United States to fail
Forget patriotism. Forget love of country. That only matters if a right wing theocrat occupies the office of President of the United States:
A surprising number of conservatives are doing a happy-dance over the fact that the United States will not host the Olympic summer games in 2016. As far as I can tell, their glee is driven entirely by their hatred of President Obama -- Chicago is his hometown, and therefore undeserving.
Who are these people? If you can believe it... it's the Usual Suspects:
Eric Erickson published an item declaring: "World Rejects Barack Obama."
Hahahahaha. I thought the world would love us more now that Bush was gone. I thought if we whored ourselves out to our enemies, great things would happen. Apparently not.
So Obama's pimped us to every two bit thug and dictator in the world, made promises to half the Olympic committee, and they did not even kiss him. So much for improving America's standing in the world, Barry O.
Malkin's mocking the U.S. defeat; so is the Weekly Standard. Fox News, which launched an aggressive effort against Chicago's bid, will no doubt follow.
(Update: the offices of the Weekly Standard, in its own words, "erupted" in "cheers" after the announcement.)
A year ago, a conservative Republican president told Chicago, "This country supports your bid, strongly." That was then, before the right decided their hatred for the president's hometown was more important than anything else.
Of course, it doesn't matter to these guys that Chicago's bid proposal was originally put together while George W. Bush was in the White House, and enjoyed Bush's full support.
No, all that matters to the unpatriotic right wing is that Obama is president now. A setback for America is a setback for him, so that's good.
Imagine that... conservatives rooting for the United States of America to fail. Are they also hoping that the United States will fail to prevent another terrorist attack? They're certainly hoping we fail to achieve healthcare reform or greater environmental protection to attack the climate crisis.
At the Washington Monthly, Steve Benen adds:
Remember, in 2005, when New York was eliminated as a host city for the 2012 Olympics, and liberals everywhere giggled like children and mocked the Bush administration?
Oh wait, that didn't happen.
The right wing's glee over the Chicago bid - their happiness over a loss for our country - reminds us that they are for a faux kind of patriotism that is tied to their ideology.
If their ideology is not shared by our democratically elected leaders, then love of country goes out the window. Radical conservatives are right wingers first and Americans second.
Pathetic, sure, but we've seen this attitude on display before.
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