Look! America bling!

I actually somewhat agree with an opinion piece on the CNN website, about the insanity of the stupid little American flag lapel pins.  

This debate is useless, tiresome and distracting. Why? Because if there are members of Congress who wear a flag lapel pin but refuse to shore up our borders, don't do enough to stop the flow of drugs into our neighborhoods, or don't help to eradicate the gaps between the haves and have nots, then are they truly fighting for the concerns of Americans, or playing on the emotions of people by what's on their lapel?

Granted, I don't agree entirely with his reasoning, but hey, it's a start.  Here's my thing, though.  He says this:

Let me tell you something: When I'm on the golf course and I slip my wedding ring into my golf bag, the Rev. Jacquie Hood Martin is still my wife. When we shoot hoops and I remove my Texas A&M University ring from my right hand, I still love my school. The fact that I can no longer wear my 1987 class ring from Houston's Jack Yates High School doesn't mean I don't cherish the crimson and gold. And I may not be able to fit into the shirt I pledged in, but I will be a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. until the day I die.

I am an unapologetic Christian, but you won't see a cross dangling from my neck or a James Avery charm bracelet on my wrist. Why? Because my love of Jesus Christ is in my heart.

Which I'm sure is a true sentiment, echoed by millions, and perfectly admirable.  But it's not the point, because it's not a politician's job to 'love America' - whatever that means (America's a pretty big place, and there's a lot of contradictions here).  Perhaps it's just a game of semantics, but if I expect my politicians to love and cherish something, it's not the nebulous, enormous, contradiction-filled 'America', but perhaps 'the Constitution'?  You know, the bit of paper that made America?  That's something I can get behind loving.

But even that's useless because you know what?  When any federal worker, everyone from the Speaker of the House all the way down to the mail clerk working at a satellite office for the IRS*, they take an oath:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

Pretty succinct, says what needs to be said and not much more.  And not to sound like some heathen liberal (which I am), but isn't that enough?  You pledge of your own free will to - in essence - do the right thing according to the Constitution, which is where any American's primary loyalty should lie, and that's that.  Rather like the Constitution itself, it's elegant in it's simplicity, and gets the job done.

Of course, as I said, I'm just some heathen liberal, so what would I know?  But to me the whole 'love of country' crap has always seemed to be...well, crap.

*Yes, really.  When I worked as a data monkey for them, I took the same oath.