This is a very funny piece. When I was in high school, I was on the varsity debate team. One of the rules of formal debate is that name-calling does not earn any points. I wish some of my leftist, liberal friends would cut out the name-calling. It embarrasses us all.

I am a leftist who doesn't hate my country, has some sympathy for our troops in harms way, and don't disdain personal responsibility. Since what is being done by the United States government is being done in my name, so to speak, I feel an obligation to weigh in when I think US policy is headed in the wrong direction.

Saying criticism equals hating one's country makes as much sense as saying a parent who puts their child on time-out hates that child.

In both cases, the opposite is true.

The "personal responsibility" argument is often used to explain away homelessness. The right-wing think tanks have pitched the idea that homeless people are homeless because of some bad decision they made: quitting a job or school, drinking or doing drugs, or getting in trouble with the law. This argument means that the government and wealthy people are not responsible for the plight of homeless people. Nevermind that homelessness springs from the gap between how little a job can pay and the high cost of housing.
If that homeless person had just gone to Harvard, they could have been a corporation lawyer by now!