You can be a Liberal and Patriot.

Currently in Los Angeles, we’re experiencing something which the United States hasn’t seen since 1965. The last time anything like this was seen was when President Lyndon Baines Johnson deployed the National Guard to Alabama to protect a Civil Rights march without the consent of Governor George Wallace; a raging racist and segregationist.

That was sixty years ago.

Governor Newsom and many other local and federal officials informed Donald Trump that there was and still is no need for federal intervention. There was and still is no need for the deployment of the National Guard. Trump disagreed, and decided to stroke violence and antagonize thousands of lawfully abiding citizens protesting for their Constitutional rights.

Every single human being living within the United States is guaranteed the right of Due Process. It’s non negotiable, the Constitution very clearly states twice that this is a fact. First in the Fifth Amendment, “…No person shall…be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of [the] law…” and in the Fourteenth, “nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of [the] law…”.

The Fifth Amendment speaks directly of the Federal Government, whilst the Fourteenth speaks directly of State Governments; but all together, it’s known. Due Process is an unimpeachable right, guaranteed by the Constitution; instilled by the Founding Fathers and those brave men sacrificed everything to keep the Union together and morally honest.

That makes these protests valid in cause, and their peacefulness in defense are valid in action. What we have seen however, as a Nation, is what we have seen during every other protest against unconstitutional actions under Trump’s tenure[s] as President of the United States. The flying and waving of any and every flag except for that of our own.

Reminder, you can be a Liberal and Patriot at the same time.

That’s is in fact what helped Democrats dominate the 20th Century with the exception of Ronald Reagan, who took from prior Democratic presidential campaign playbooks to make himself appeal to traditional Democratic voting populations. President Kennedy was vehemently proud to be an American, and he never once shy’d away from America being the only great nation left standing on earth. “What unites us is far greater than what divides us…For we are all Americans, pledged to the principles of the Constitution, united by a common history and a common destiny.”

He won the 1960 Election against Richard Nixon, a protestant and popular incumbent Vice President. If he had lived to see November of 1964, he’d have wiped the floor with Barry Goldwater and left him picking up his loose teeth from the concrete pillar in which he was politically curb-stomped. President Johnson won the 1964 Election in a landslide, campaigning heavily on a pro Americana aesthetic and values. Jimmy Carter beat Gerald Ford by restoring American trust into American ideals, and Bill Clinton wouldn’t have won in 1992 if it weren’t for his strong showings in the Solid South, which turned more for his pro-American rhetoric and cultural symbolism than anything else.

We’ve since strayed away from being proudly American to being meekly American.

No one wants to wave the flag anymore, or pledge allegiance. No one wants to claim that America is their home and that it’s what they’re directly fighting for. That’s why the right has been able to adopt it; and use it to their advantage. It’s why so many Heartlanders and Southerners, who were once on the side of the liberty and democracy protecting Democratic Party, have shifted over to the Republicans. Because in their eyes, Trump cares about America. He waves our flag and we don’t. He celebrates the involvement of Church in State and we don’t.

We’re losing to a literal dictator because we can’t pick up our own flag and wave it with pride.

Every time I put on my business coat, I apply my American lapel-pin. Because in my mind, it’s the American thing to do. Just like protesting for ICE detainees to have active access to Due Process.

It’s the American thing to do.

It’s the American thing to be American.

To be proud to be an American.

I’m a Liberal and I dislike Donald Trump.

I’m a Liberal and I love my country.

I’m a Liberal and I’m a Patriot.

I’m a Liberal and I’m a Patriot and you are too.

So show it.