American Masochists Malign Our Nation - US history of tolerance and heroism should be valued - Brief Article - Column

CALL THEM revisionists or deconstructionists, but recognize them for what they are--American masochists. Hating themselves and the U.S., they are pan of the current malaise of political correctness.

Revisionists are the new flag-burners for whom patriotism is a dirty word. Guilt-ridden and breast-beaters, they are like those who join Alcoholics Anonymous. Drunks dwelling on past sins, they proclaim to all who will listen just how bad a nation we are.

The women among them are what talk show host Rush Limbaugh calls the feminazis. They complain of glass ceilings and patriarchy, as though all of them are wearing chadors and walking behind their menfolk. The masochists judge events of our past in terms of present values. For them, America can do no right.

Perhaps Pres. Clinton was influenced by them on a recent trip to Africa when he apologized for past slavery in the U.S. What he failed to mention is that we fought the Civil War and paid a terrible price to end that cancer. He didn't bother to acknowledge that, at some time, nearly every nation, including African ones, indulged in slavery. Even American Indians were slave holders and slave traders.

We are excoriated by bleeding hearts for permitting capital punishment. Most states that execute murderers do so with a painless lethal injection. However, no one berates the Apaches of a century ago for torturing and then killing innocent victims. One commonly creel way was to tie a person upside down to a wagon wheel with his head suspended a foot above a fire, which made his brain explode.

The new breed of western "historian" is typical of these American masochists, such as Patricia Limerick of the University of Colorado at Boulder, a MacArthur Fellow. In Legacy of Conquest, she berates the miners and early western entrepreneurs for their ecological sins. The Frederick Jackson Turner thesis that the West shaped Americans as much as Americans shaped the West and thus developed a brand new culture, different from its European counterpart, is rejected out of hand. She writes: "We're beginning to see the American West as not a distinct and innocent region--but pan of a much bigger picture of European conquest. And the West has more in common with South Africa and Australia than we'd like to admit."

In a debate with Stephen Andrews, author of the best-seller, Undaunted Courage (an up-to-date account of the Lewis and Clark expedition), Limerick argued that we should forget about eulogizing heroes and praise only heroic moments. Her delight seems to be in detecting character flaws--e.g., Thomas Jefferson was a slave holder. It is minorities that win her attention and praises.

However, minorities are plentiful, heroes are not. The latter are needed badly and the nation was not wrong in honoring Meriwether Lewis and George Rogers Clark, pioneering aviator Charles Lindbergh, the astronauts, and others. They are national role models, the proud product of a country that must be doing something right.

Even filmmaker Ken Bums, famed for his great PBS Civil War presentation, seemed to lean in the revisionist direction in his attempt to do something similar for his TV documentary on the American West. In one of the episodes, "The Geography of Hope," he details the acquisition by the U.S. of Spanish and, later, Mexican territory, seemingly implying that this was a bad thing. Ask the people of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California if they would prefer to be under Mexican role today.

Were the Mormons persecuted simply for their religious beliefs, whereas others had freedom of religion? Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston never engaged in any pitched battles with them. He was sent by Washington in 1857 to have them obey the laws of the nation, one of which was monogamous marriages. Polygamy was recognized by nearly everyone as contrary to civilization. The fact is that, despite its early righteous Puritans, the U.S. has been an incredibly tolerant nation throughout its history.

No country has been as generous, either. After World War I, we paid reparations to France for damage done to such things as trees. France never reimbursed us for the loss of American lives on its soil, though. Prior to our getting involved in World War II, we initiated a Lend Lease program (everyone knew this was a euphemism and that essentially it was a giveaway) to help England and the Soviet Union in their fight with the Axis powers.

After the war, we instituted the Marshall Plan, spending billions to get Europe back on its feet--a Europe that included our former enemies, Germany and Italy. After Japan surrendered, we similarly helped that stricken nation achieve not only a world economy, but a genuine democracy. This has helped all of Asia to raise its standard of living. During the Cold War, we started the Berlin Airlift and continued sending food and clothing to beleaguered Berliners, until Russia gave up on the blockade.

We welcomed Cuban exiles to our shores during Castro's purges and helped them win the good life here. We sacrificed American lives in Korea, and our troops are still present there as a first line of defense. We tried to help out in Somalia, that cesspool of Africa, and had to pull out for lack of self-help on the pan of the people themselves. Still, we continue to pour aid into other African nations, hoping against hope that they will reform. We are in Bosnia trying to help the people in the area become good neighbors instead of butchering each other over ancient feuds. Regardless of how one feels about these forays into other continents, our intentions were good--namely, to help their citizens achieve self-government.

For a while, Pres. Ronald Reagan succeeded in pulling us out of this masochistic morass, making us feel good about ourselves. The negativists were waiting in the wings, though, to reemerge.

Author Mark Twain once said that every man is a moon and has a dark side he shows to no other. One might add that this is true of every nation as well. We have our dark side, but it doesn't compare to the light we shine on the rest of the world.

Dr. Kreyche, American Thought Editor of USA Today, is emeritus professor of philosophy, DePaul University, Chicago, Ill.

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