By Amanda Toth
Assistant Editor-in-Chief

One of my biggest pet peeves in American politics is the notion that liberals love their country less than conservatives.

Take, for example, Representative Michele Bachmann, R-Minnesota. While up for reelection, she had been making the rounds of talk shows to promote her campaign. While on MSNBC’s “Hardball,” Bachmann insinuated that Barack Obama and members of Congress have “anti-American views” and that the media should conduct an investigation.

Before the comments, Bachmann was the favorite to be reelected. After the interview, her opponent, Elwyn Tinklenberg, received over $800,000 in donations.

Is it just me, or does this sound an awful lot like McCarthyism?

Another example is John McCain’s campaign slogan, “Country First.” To me, this insinuates that only Republicans put country ahead of agenda.

If we didn’t care about our country, why would we be involved in politics at all? We would simply sit back and watch the chaos swirl around us. We do what we do because we want what is best for our country, something that is not the status quo.

It is not possible for one person to love the United States more than another. People just have different ways of expressing their devotion. For some people, that expression is show through military service. For others, it might mean political service. Some citizens may show their respect through civil service, such as the Peace Corps.

Although both the Democratic and Republican parties have very different ideological viewpoints, they have one thing in common. They both love their country and serve it in the best way they can.