While I have never even met a U.S. president, let alone been able to call one “friend” as Ray Gilbert (“Make your words patriotic,” Our Readers’ Views, April 18) has, I take exception to the notion that criticizing President Trump is unpatriotic. Gilbert asks, without hint of irony, “how cheap and despicable can people be?”
Laying aside the veracity of the criticism leveled against Trump, I would like to refer to the words of President Theodore Roosevelt, who said, “To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
In other words, love for our country in no way precludes criticism of its leaders. According to Roosevelt, it demands it.
I would further add that coerced patriotism is indistinguishable from fascism.
