An error that many on the Left make is believing the right-wing conmen who claim that they are America or that they are Christianity. From that position, these people start going against America and Christianity. In fact, both the conmen who make such claims and the people who take the shadow position are wrong. America is a vast country of 300 million people, and most of these people are not the Christian Right. As for Christianity, it has existed for 2000 years, and most of its practicioners have had nothing to do with America.

I, for one, have a lot of respect for America. This respect however does not extend to professional conmen who claim that they are America and that you are not. The biggest error that one can make is that of believing these conmen. Ralph Reed, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and others along the same line have no business claiming to speak for America or for Christianity. And taking an anti-American stance only empowers these people in deception.

Instead of buying into these people's racketeering and then taking an anti-American stance, a much wiser direction is to see the rackets for what they are. America owes vastly to people who are not Christian and much more to people who are not the Christian Right. America's science - run mostly by atheists and Jews - is at the root of all technology in America, which means that it is at the root of all prosperity in America. America's railroads, as well as most of household appliances used in America, were built by the Chinese; many of its cars and computers, by the Japanese. The atheists, agnostics and minority religions in the computer industry were the true source of America's 1980s and 1990s prosperity. The founders of America based America's constitutional system on the works of 18th century English and French intellectuals, most of whom were deists or atheists. And among America's business as well as America's workers, most do not follow Ralph Reed or Rush Limbaugh and have other ideas in their minds.

One does not need to buy into the falsehoods of Christian Right in order to love America or to seek America's well-being. America owes vastly to people who are non-Christian, and more so to the people who are not Christian Right. Whereas from the Christian Right most of what we see is rackets. And I am far from the only person who would make note that both America and Christianity deserve much better representation and much better leadership than that.

So instead of going by the false claim that the Christian Right is America, much more useful is historical knowledge that shows just how much America owes to people who are not Christian Right. As for American Left, it should be unabashedly patriotic. America owes greatly to the American Left, and those involved in it should be aggressively positive about America. This will result in more people of liberal persuasion holding positions of leadership and in fewer right-wing conmen being able to credibly claim that they are America and that the rest of America is not.