A lone police officer stands front as other colleagues turn their backs while Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks during the funeral of New York Police Department Officer Wenjian Liu at Aievoli Funeral Home, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2015, in the Brooklyn borough of New York.

One of the most memorable right-wing rhetorical flourishes that came out of the Viet Nam War war era was, “My country right or wrong.”  No doubt the working class patriots who often invoked that sentiment to express disapproval of anti-war protesters really believed that they were the true American patriots at that incredibly divisive, painful moment in our nation’s history.  I also have no doubt that they didn’t realize that the notion of “my country right or wrong” is the antithesis of what a democracy that celebrates freedom of speech is all about.  But it is a perfectly appropriate sentiment for an autocratic, populist, authoritarian…