pa·tri·ot·ism
devoted love, support, and defense of one’s countrypro·tec·tion·ism
practice or system of fostering or developing domestic industries by protecting them from foreign competition through duties or quotas imposed on importations.Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
I think they should take all the uniforms, put them in a big pile and burn them and start all over again
Politicians and leaders of large organizations knew that there are two level of communications: one at symbolic level and other on the specifics. There are many advantages of staying at symbolic level. The audience are easier motivated by a belief, a value, or a vision. Once motivated, they move at the right direction without much need for herding; they are self-managed; the interpretations are left to the listeners and the speaker, therefore, avoided direct responsibility for the actions taken; lastly, it is much easier to adjust or change later, since nothing specific was said.
Staying at pure symbolic level, however, disconnects with the reality. Therefore, a skilled politician will try to appear concrete to galvanize the support.
Bashing China is popular, yet it does not get trite. Chinese should feel good. The USA is clearly treating China as her major, and probably only, rival and equal — not much different from other rivalries such as USC-UCLA, TsingHua-Peking U., or Cambridge-Oxford. When the said rival comes up in any conversation, trash talk excessively, drink up, and let out a few grunts for good measure. Only petty actions, if that, will take place. Real games will be played in a different arena with a completely different set of rules.
Yes, symbolically, it looks so bad for the US Olympic team to wear uniforms made in China (designed by Ralph Lauren). If we inspect the equipment the aesthetes use for compete: shoes, balls, rackets, lenses, etc., I doubt many of them were made in USA. If anyone bring their tablet, MP3 player, digital camera, or cell phone with them. The chances are pretty slim that they were made in the USA. In terms of monetary value, the uniforms are really quite trivial compared to those. But they are big symbolically. Wearing what made by the rival is just not patriotic.
Note that none of the politicians turned this into a protectionism conversation. Everyone knew that Chinese only got a petty sum of the value from the whole uniform deal. Ralph Lauren is is pleased to be labelled an “Iconic American Company,” publicized by the US Olympic Committee.
So the proper play is to follow the tradition: trash talk as much as you please, drink up, grunt for good measure, and do nothing.