I just can't with some people's "America First" BS...

I just love how some people try to use the USA flag as a weapon. All it does is divide us.

You're not a patriot if you hate people from other countries. Let's start with that.

You're a patriot if you are a concerned citizen who is active in the military, your community, politics, and civil governance, holding representatives responsible for doing the things the PEOPLE want, and therefore LOVE YOUR COUNTRY because your country is working for you the way you want and expect it to, and hold them accountable if they don't.

We all WANT and EXPECT our country to be taking care of our VETERANS well and without question because THAT IS THE GOVERNMENT'S JOB. Why is that controversial, FFS? The government SHOULD be doing it, but it's not. And now some idiots in the Senate want to privatize the VA so it can be a BUSINESS and therefore accountable to NONE OF US. Hell. No.

We shouldn't be taking care of people because we're the USA, we should be taking care of people BECAUSE WE ARE HUMAN BEINGS, AND WE CAN. This country has more than enough money to take care of ALL of us if we require more of a contribution from those people who SURE AS ANYTHING can pay LOTS more.

We're not more important than any other human beings in need on the planet. If the government was doing what it's supposed to do, there'd be plenty of help, assistance, jobs, and healthcare for ALL of our citizens, permanent residents, AND refugees.

The amount of money being greedily hoarded by big companies - WHO THE HELL NEEDS $275m SEVERANCE PACKAGE FROM A CEO JOB?!?!! - is obscene. If they paid their workers better, we wouldn't have this issue. No individual needs $75 million year end bonus. NOBODY. If the government made those people pay MORE, the rest of us wouldn't suffer so damned much. The REFUGEES ARE NOT THE PROBLEM. All the greedy businesses who grew up on the movie "Wall Street" and don't give a crap about their workers ARE. Guess who's lobbying Congress with millions of dollars? It ain't the Syrians. So I don't want to hear anything about that. Not. One. Thing.

So don't use my flag as a weapon. Don't use it as a rallying cry. Right now it is a symbol of embarrassment because of how dysfunctional our government is because the people DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW IT WORKS and therefore do not make our representatives do right, and is exponentially getting worse.

So go learn something, spread the knowledge, spread the TRUTH, and spread your effort. For the right reasons. If you wanna make whatever whatever again, other countries aren't the problem. THIS country is.

But isolationism never helps. Even CHINA donates BILLIONS of dollars to the UN and in foreign aid EVERY YEAR. CHINA. As closed off as they have historically been. CHINA helps the world (regardless of whatever other crap their government does behind closed doors). You really wanna become isolationist Mao China? How well did that turn out?

Don't. Misuse. My. Flag. Learn something. Then fly it for inclusionism, tolerance, and global benevolence. We welcome everyone. Or this grand experiment has failed again. Like before. We've failed so many times. But what's great about the USA is that eventually we turn things around again. We keep trying. We don't give up. The USA should stand for something significant, and good, in the WORLD.

We were recently DOWNGRADED from "full democracy" to "flawed democracy". US. THE GOD-BLESSED USA. OUR DEMOCRACY IS NOW FLAWED. What the hell is going on? This CANNOT go on.

If the only thing our flag stands for is "USA first" we're all done, and morally bankrupt in the eyes of the rest of the nations of the Earth.