On June 23, CBS lined up five things you might not know about McCain, and check out the difference in tone. He wasn't born in the United States, but in the Panama Canal Zone. He was nicknamed "the punk" in high school, a reputation that "followed to the Naval Academy," where he graduated fifth from the bottom of his class. When he crashed in Vietnam, it was "It was not his first, it was not his second. It was his third crash as a pilot."
Thomas Sowell reminds us of what happens when patriotism goes out of fashion in Does Patriotism Matter.
During the First World War, France fought on against the German invaders for four long years, despite having more of its soldiers killed than all the American soldiers killed in all the wars in the history of the United States, put together.
But during the Second World War, France collapsed after just six weeks of fighting and surrendered to Nazi Germany. At the bitter moment of defeat the head of the French teachers' union was told, "You are partially responsible for the defeat."
Charles de Gaulle, Francois Mauriac, and other Frenchmen blamed a lack of national will or general moral decay, for the sudden and humiliating collapse of France in 1940.
It is unfortunate that liberal historians decide what the young learn about history. Will history now repeat itself?