So, erstwhile rock star wannabe, and current senatorial aspirant, Beto O’Rourke, recently opined that he believes kneeling in protest at America’s national anthem, is, ahem, the essence of patriotism, or something along those lines. Well.

Beto’s wrong. Here’s why.

First, however, let’s give due homage to the supremely gifted athlete we have to thank for this debate and who selflessly sacrificed his pro football career to advocate for social justice.  Just kidding, it was Colin Kaepernick.  Okay, I’m not a football analyst, and certainly Kaepernick is a gifted athlete. After all, only gifted athletes make it on any level of professional sports. That said, Colin Kaepernick, despite a couple of stellar years, was mired on the bench when he began his great social justice crusade.  It’s worth noting also, that he was not mired on the bench behind some hot-shot rookie or aging superstar, but Blaine Gabbert, himself a journeyman quarterback, winding down his career in a series of backup roles. All this on a team that went 2-14!

So committed was our hero that he announced, after opting out of the final year of his San Francisco 49er contract (in what should go down as one of history’s biggest miscalculations) that he would not continue his anthem protests the following year.  Unfortunately, for Kaepernick, his fellow NFL players, the NFL itself, and football fans everywhere, the virus was already loosed, infecting other disenchanted players, a gleeful media and many on the left, with Beto O’Rourke only the latest to try making hay out of pooh.

Putting Kaepernick aside, some of these folks may genuinely believe in the cause for which he stands, uhm, kneels; though I suspect that for many, the true cause is a genuine loathing for our country. However, assuming good intentions on the part of O’Rourke and others, and even assuming, for argument’s sake, the legitimacy of their cause, dishonoring our country and its symbols is hardly an effective approach for rallying public opinion in a populace that still very much sees the greatness of America—and yes, America is still and always has been great.

That sentence, by the way, is not just a throw away.  America is and always has been great.  It is not and never has been perfect.  That is why from our founding until now we have striven to form a more perfect union. Obviously the blight and stain upon our nation that was slavery should not be ignored. The scars remain, as they should, to remind us of what happens when we fail to live up to the spirit of our own high ideas. Likewise, institutionalized racism, discrimination, and segregation, are blights on our history, the wounds from which are still raw and tender. Although we cannot and should not ignore them, these wounds will never heal as long as we continue to pick at them.

We can certainly debate police actions, but that ironically isn’t the point of this post or my argument. If all Americans or even most Americans could be genuinely said to be a perfect reflection of the American idea, perhaps protests against that idea would be warranted. The truth is we all fall short to varying degrees of the American idea. That’s okay, we are better for embracing it and trying, much as Christians are better for embracing and trying to live up to the ideas expressed in the Bible, though falling short repeatedly. Some may believe that the protestors who triumphed during the Civil Rights movement did so by changing the American idea, but the truth is, the Civil Rights protests succeeded by forcing Americans to take a hard look in the mirror. It wasn’t a pretty sight, and we couldn’t deny that we were not living up to our celebrated creed. Sure, some Americans continue to fall short in this area, but many did fundamentally reassess their actions and beliefs in light of everything for which America is supposed to stand.

And that is where those who disrespect the symbols of America are going wrong. Read the Declaration of Independence; read the constitution; the Bill of Rights. Yes we fall short. But it is we, humans, who fall short of the American idea, not the American idea itself. Certainly some Americans are still racists, bigots, etc. Clearly some people, including police officers, politicians, and reporters, fail to live up to the values for which our country stands. We need to call attention to that—not by disrespecting the ideas, but by illuminating such shortcomings. And that is why I will always stand up and cross my heart for the pledge and the national anthem, not because I’m perfect, but because I’m not. And that is why I stand up for my country, the United States of America.