I couldn’t describe it better. Here’s John Davis writing in CounterPunch:
Every glimpse of the Stars and Stripes has me lurching between love and loathing–emotionally torn between the romantic and the rational. I fell in love with the idea of America at a young age in a distant and dismal land. Much later, when my cognitive, analytical brain kicked in, that pure and chivalrous adoration was deeply compromised by both historical knowledge and lived experience.