The conflict couldn’t be more stark for any American, conservative or liberal. On one hand, there is the Chinese government and its blatant disregard for the concepts of free expression and free thought. On the other is a people who are led by a man whose only currency is the rhetoric of peace and a love of individual freedoms reminiscent of our founders.

As the Olympic torch is disrupted by protesters around the globe and the Chinese crackdown on Tibet ensues, Americans are finally asking whether we, in good conscience, can participate in these games.

Democratic on-off table master Nancy Pelosi has proposed boycotting the opening ceremony, and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has endorsed the idea as well. To be sure, their intentions are pure, but this is the brand of half-baked pseudo-liberal posturing that is typical of Democratic Party leadership. Be close enough to the policy you oppose ideologically to avoid claims of obstruction, while remaining far enough to criticize the action later. It is the politics of intellectual cowardice.

“I think boycotting the opening ceremony, which really gives respect to the Chinese government, is something that should be kept on the table,” Pelosi said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

If our true concern is saving face, Ms. Pelosi’s is a tenable solution. But if our nation holds any principles at all on this matter, we must make some decisive action. If we believe sport and politics should be separate, then we must give the ceremony and games our full endorsement. If we feel that supporting an event China is using to cement its international legitimacy is wrong, then we must refuse to display our flag altogether. As much as Democrats wish otherwise, there can be no compromise in this matter. We either stand firmly, or we don’t stand at all.

How can we hold our heads and flag high at these games, how can we claim to be true descendants of the American spirit, among the first peasants to free themselves of a master class if we not only stand aside in Tibet’s struggle, but give the tyrants their grandest show of power?

We have the duty to ask ourselves whether we’ve become like those who refused to give aid to our struggle for freedom. Our nation should offer more to the side of liberty than the affirmation of our own immediate interests.

Further, generations of misguided fiscal policy and the Iraq war have left us debtors to the Chinese. Chinese president Hu Jintao could respond to our political statement with a financial one, but the last time I checked, we are a sovereign nation. If the Chinese really have the will and capability to control our actions by withholding loans to the treasury, I prefer we just dissolve our government now.

Of course, the problem with these grand ideals is that life isn’t a philosophical exercise. American athletes have trained their entire lives for these games, and they have a tiny window to compete for gold. This is sport, after all, and athletes from every country deserve more than to become political pawns for an ideological struggle against the Chinese government.

Nonetheless, the Olympics are meant to be a celebration of our shared humanity. It’s the recognition that our consciousness is linked and our differences are an intellectual construction, not a fact of our existence.

But through these games, China touts its strength, growing comfortable in the knowledge that it can deny the self-evident human rights of the Tibetans and flout international standards for freedom.

American politicians will undoubtedly labor in search of some middle ground. The popular presumption is that we will somehow exert greater pressure for reform by remaining in the games. That reasoning ignores the fundamental law of Chinese politics — the government controls the flow of information. If we attend, the Communist Party will invent its own narrative of success. If we don’t, they will of course spin the situation, but international rejection of their policies will be impossible to hide.

It is a great shame that those who earn the honor of holding the torch have been attacked by protesters, but the French know quite a bit about the fight for liberty. Indeed, support of the cause of liberty is the meaning of our own flag. We must not lend it to Chinese propaganda agents in our brothers’ time of need.

Bassey Etim ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in political science and journalism.