He waves the flag at the appropriate occasions,
He has a flag in the reception area of his office,
He speaks about American values at the persuasions,
Of journalism and his publicist, which is the office.
The patriot with the offshore account is the picture,
The patriot who loves the country and its fixture,
But parks the money somewhere else before the year is done,
The patriot whose love of country stops at dollar one.
The patriotism and the tax avoidance are not contradictions,
In his mind, they are both expressions of the same,
Belief that the individual should make the restrictions,
Of government intrusion the minimum of claim.
I grew up in the American tradition of the self,
Reliant man who asked nothing and gave back his due,
Who put his savings in the bank and on the shelf,
And paid his taxes because that is what Americans do.
The tradition I grew up with has a different vocabulary,
Than the tradition of the offshore and the shell,
They both claim the same flag but the commentary,
Is written in incompatible dialects that fell.