"Unadulterated Patriotism"

Richard John Neuhaus deftly skewers a bit of (unconscious?) sanctimoniousness from the Washington Post. (Click through; the post is short, but not nuggety enough to excerpt.)

After a quarter century of the conservative movement at flood tide, it really does betray a smug laziness--or a lazy smugness--for liberals to look down on conservatives as static, backward yearning flag-idolaters. In an era when a significant percentage of conservatives think that the best way of protecting America is to spread democracy, and a significant percentage of liberals think the highest form of patriotism is to deface Old Glory with swastikas, libs needn't automatically consider themselves the dynamic faction.