"Why do you hate America?!"

I can't speak for every leftist, I can only speak for myself, but I am often asked "Why do you hate America?!". This is often not asked in good faith, but regardless I have been reflecting on this question and a potential response for some time now.

I guess I have to say, do I hate America? And to that I have to say, I don't. At least I don't hate what we CLAIM to represent. The Ideals that we most definitely do not live up to. They are admirable. Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness for everyone. Who could hate that?

But while I can love the ideals we profess, I can also say when we are not living up to them, and I can also acknowledge that our founding and our past don't necessarily align with those stated principles. I can acknowledge that the founders were not saints to be put upon a shelf and fawned over. These men owned slaves, denied women equal footing in the law, violated every one of the 370 treaties made to the Native Americans and put as at war for 93.2% (233 of 250) of our nations history.

Also of note:

• Japanese Internment
• The Tuskegee Experiments
• The coup in Iran in 1953
• The coup in Guatemala in 1954
• Our repeated meddling in South America in general
• COINTELPRO and other domestic spying
• Forced Sterilization of undersirables
• McCarthyism
• Abu Ghraib and CIA Torture after 9/11.
• And many many more

If we can not dare call out our mistakes and where we miss the mark (understatement) then we have a problem. The ideals are not the problem. Equality, life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Government by consent of the governed. Individual liberty, freedom of speech and expression, freedom of and from religion, equal protection under the law, due process. All these things and more were what we were taught America stands for. And I LOVE those ideals.

But we are not living up to these.

We are not living up to these when we are backing a genocide in Gaza.

We are not living up to these when we gun down citizens and non-citizens in the
street.

We are not living up to these when we spout racist, xenophobic, homophobic, transphobic and misogynistic bullshit from the halls of government.

We are not living up to these ideals when we threaten to wipe countries off the face of the earth because they deign to not genuflect at the mad kings feet.

We are not living these ideals when White Men with wealth are not held to the same account as those of color or without wealth.

So do I hate America? No. I hate that we time and again don't live up to the things we say we hold dear. And for that I don't apologize.