We cats have nine lives, so we well remember the days of Vietnam, when "Love it or leave it" was the rallying cry of those who supported America's endless Southeast Asian war. It was the best defense they could think of at a time when the nightly news shows were reporting hundreds of American soldiers killed in a week.
To those pro-war super-patriots, daring to question the mission in Vietnam was daring to question the entire American experiment, something we really don't remember any antiwar demonstrators saying. They just wanted the United States to get the hell out of Vietnam.
So now the Trumpsters are trotting out the tired old meme again, thinking it's going to wield some sort of magic. Funny, we don't remember it working before: The US frantically scrambled out of Saigon in 1975 (see above), and after 58,000 American deaths, Vietnam fell to the Communists. (Somebody later wrote a musical about it.)
Anyway, we're pleased to report that "Love it or leave it" still isn't packing much of a punch. In Appomattox, Virginia (site of another notable surrender), when some jackass minister put up a sign on his church that said you-guessed-it, his congregation walked out in protest.
That pastor dude probably doesn't read much James Baldwin, but one of Baldwin's most famous quotes is the perfect response: "I love America more than any country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually." We cats PURR.
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