Patriotic Expression and Visionary Cheerleading

Oh, we’re not all agreed? Some don’t see any substance to patriotism, or at least not as an election issue. And others see substance, but they may be like Tim who questions how patriotism should be expressed.

Okay, let’s say the President should be patriotic. It seems many people, even on the left, don’t want to deny the President should be patriotic, or don’t want the President to deny that he’s a patriot. But then what?

Following Tim’s lead (who commented on the previous post), we can ask, how should he express it? What is satisfactory expression of one’s patriotism? And what’s the standard for judging this? Does wearing a little flag pin count? Does a Glenn-Beck-show-size flag prove it? How many “patriotism points” is enough? Does questioning the patriotism of one’s opponent prove it? Oh, wait … have I blundered?

Everybody knows that questioning another’s patriotism, asking for proof, is poor form. Lurking in the background is that saying. You know, it is said that “patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel,” as though discussion of patriotism is for muckraking scoundrels. As Obama said, talk of someone’s patriotism “poisons” debate.

Why not talk substance? Isn’t that what started the questions about Obama? You know, he said he chose to show his “true patriotism” by speaking out about national security rather than with “that pin.” (And then Time reported he decided it wasn’t an either-or question and began wearing that pin. )

Obviously wearing pins doesn’t solve anything. It certainly wouldn’t lower gas prices. And what kind of person would prefer to have everyone wearing “that pin” than have lower gas prices?

And, yes, were I in some kind of place in which everyone wore the uniform of the pin, I might have reason to be concerned. After all, totalitarians enforce uniformity. Hitler enforced patriotism. He was a great cheerleader with a 1,000 year vision for Germany….

Is patriotism akin to national socialism? is it something to be avoided?

An American might wonder if liberals or “progressives” don’t see patriotism as something to be avoided because of an association of patriotism with nationalism. Over at the WP, E. J. Dionne Jr. felt a need to issue the warning that “progressives should not assume that patriotism is somehow a bad thing, akin to jingoism or nationalism.” He continued, “The reaction of too many progressives to patriotism is ‘automatic, allergic recoil,’ say two young ["progressive"] Seattle writers, Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer, in their important book The True Patriot.”

A less friendly observation about progressives and patriotism came from Jonah Goldberg. He referred to The Nation’s characterization of Americans as less than flattering. (You can find a response here with a third party rejoinder here and a dialog here.) And that reference to The Nation reminds me….

After the first Gulf War, The Nation had a symposium on patriotism. They recognized the left had a problem with patriotism–not that the left isn’t patriotic. And the numerous authors wrote short pieces on what patriotism meant to them. They tended, like the editor, to cite Nietzsche, and Marx, while sounding like Obama … but I suppose that’s another post.

So who is caricaturing whom? Are the liberals, progressives, leftists, etc. unpatriotic and allergic to the flag? Are conservatives somehow like national socialists? Is there a “real patriotism”? Does the left really have trouble defining patriotism? Is there something wrong with Webster’s definition?