Was 'Country First' just election slogan?

Throughout the 2008 presidential campaign, signs barring the slogan "Country First" were seen from the Republican convention to rallies all over America.

Was this just a slogan, or did its standard bearers really mean it?

In the days since the election, there is reason to doubt the sincerity of some who so boldly proclaimed the slogan.

We are hearing from some of them - in blogs, on talk radio and even in the very same "mainstream media" they so frequently malign - that honor and respect for work is tantamount to socialism.

We are hearing from some of them, that a return to adherence to the Constitution is weakness.

We are hearing from them, that the democratic process of Nov. 4, in which a record number of Americans exercised their right to vote, was merely an exercise in "black parochialism" and "white guilt."

Is this "Country First?" We see them cling to and praise the misery and failures of the past eight years as if it was endowed to America by divine intervention.

We hear them continue to rattle the sabers of a senseless war, when even those we are alleged to have gone off to defend are demanding our departure.

We hear them scoff at the proclamation that we will correct the errors which led to the greatest economic failure since the Great Depression, as if in America, a land which has never regarded failure as an option, failure is somehow inevitable, even honorable.

Is this "Country First?" I think not. There is, however, time for redemption.

Those who so boldly proclaimed that "Country First" was their credo can begin to respect the majority of their fellow citizens who spoke loud and clear on Nov. 4, give the benefit of the doubt to the man they chose as president, and give the path that is being laid out a chance to succeed.

After all, at the end of the day, quasi sloganism is no substitute for honest love of country

Cosmo Andoloro

Wheeling