Political ideology is trumping our ideals

When did we begin to lose love of country? Has our devotion evolved into jingoism, xenophobia, ultranationalism, compounded by radical extremism? Have we now embraced foreign interference replacing American timeworn governance that once normalized the Western World to moderate civility?

America's first president led this fledgling country into the world's first experimental democracy; our sixteenth fought to ensure its success. Both presidents believed this nation could endure if unity remained at the core of its existence.

Openly, during this century, we now have political ideology virtually trampling the founding idealism of that democracy, party loyalty over allegiance to country, clearly signaling a portentous warning of the survival of the world's first democratic republic, literally ripping it to shreds, threatening that trial which began 230 years ago.

The converse of love is not hate; it's indifference. It relinquishes our hold on democratic ideals by not exercising our basic rights as citizens, betraying the presidential oaths that both Washington and Lincoln, not so long ago, swore to defend.

James D. Cook

Schaumburg