For many Americans, it unpatriotic to speak out against the actions of America. It does a disservice to Americans when you criticize the actions of the President. I don’t understand the reasoning behind this logic. America sets itself apart from many countries because we have an opportunity for free speech. All Americans should support free speech, especially when we criticize the people who serve us! The President has to answer to us. This is our form of government. We currently have a President and Administration who say that polls don’t mean much, even when the polls show that a majority of the Americans oppose their policies and actions.
Theodore Roosevelt said it best in 1918.
“The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.”
“Roosevelt in the Kansas City Star”, May 7, 1918
We must continue to criticize and speak out against our government when it is deemed necessary. This is not a bipartisan issue. Let’s take these words and continue the fight to make sure that the government continues to be of the people, by the people and for the people.
