The United States is a polity based on the belief that the Enlightenment concept of individual Liberty as described in the Declaration of Independence and defined in Article IV of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen can and should be the only organizing principle of our governments, and th…
The United States is a polity based on the belief that the Enlightenment concept of individual Liberty as described in the Declaration of Independence and defined in Article IV of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen can and should be the only organizing principle of our governments, and that the purpose of government is to protect that Liberty and provide the conditions for it to continue to expand. Patriotism in the American context, then, is faithfulness to that idea of expanding individual Liberty, protection of the governments, State and Federal, intended to advance it, and revision of those governments where they fall short.
George Washington in his Farewell Address provided the best maxims that I know about patriotism for Americans. They can be rephrased from their original 18th Century diction, but I don't think that they can be improved upon:
"Profoundly penetrated with this idea (i.e., gratitude for the support he had always received from the people in his conduct of their affairs), I shall carry it with me to my grave as a strong incitement to unceasing vows that Heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence; that your union and brotherly affection may be perpetual; that the free Constitution which is the work of your hands may be sacredly maintained; that its administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom and virtue; that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these States, under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, and adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it."
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"The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad, of your safety, of your prosperity, of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that from different causes and from different quarters much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth ... it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned, and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.
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"[Y]ou have improved upon your first essay by the adoption of a Constitution of Government better calculated than your former for an intimate union and for the efficacious management of your common concerns. This Government, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers, uniting security with energy, and containing within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty. The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the constitution which at any time exists till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government."
As JVL likes to say, "read the whole thing": it's the textbook of American patriotism.
2. How should Democrats (and everyone else) demonstrate patriotism?
Restate Washington's principles in terms that people today can understand, and remind the people of them. Always declare their loyalty to the principles, and show how any reforms that they propose fit with and further them. Expose how far short Trump and his minions fall from those same principles, and how destructive they are of them. Liberty is STILL a revolutionary principle, and Trump is a counter-revolutionary and should be called out as such.
1. What is patriotism?
The United States is a polity based on the belief that the Enlightenment concept of individual Liberty as described in the Declaration of Independence and defined in Article IV of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen can and should be the only organizing principle of our governments, and that the purpose of government is to protect that Liberty and provide the conditions for it to continue to expand. Patriotism in the American context, then, is faithfulness to that idea of expanding individual Liberty, protection of the governments, State and Federal, intended to advance it, and revision of those governments where they fall short.
George Washington in his Farewell Address provided the best maxims that I know about patriotism for Americans. They can be rephrased from their original 18th Century diction, but I don't think that they can be improved upon:
"Profoundly penetrated with this idea (i.e., gratitude for the support he had always received from the people in his conduct of their affairs), I shall carry it with me to my grave as a strong incitement to unceasing vows that Heaven may continue to you the choicest tokens of its beneficence; that your union and brotherly affection may be perpetual; that the free Constitution which is the work of your hands may be sacredly maintained; that its administration in every department may be stamped with wisdom and virtue; that, in fine, the happiness of the people of these States, under the auspices of liberty, may be made complete by so careful a preservation and so prudent a use of this blessing as will acquire to them the glory of recommending it to the applause, the affection, and adoption of every nation which is yet a stranger to it."
********
"The unity of government which constitutes you one people is also now dear to you. It is justly so, for it is a main pillar in the edifice of your real independence, the support of your tranquility at home, your peace abroad, of your safety, of your prosperity, of that very liberty which you so highly prize. But as it is easy to foresee that from different causes and from different quarters much pains will be taken, many artifices employed, to weaken in your minds the conviction of this truth ... it is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of your national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned, and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.
********
"[Y]ou have improved upon your first essay by the adoption of a Constitution of Government better calculated than your former for an intimate union and for the efficacious management of your common concerns. This Government, the offspring of our own choice, uninfluenced and unawed, adopted upon full investigation and mature deliberation, completely free in its principles, in the distribution of its powers, uniting security with energy, and containing within itself a provision for its own amendment, has a just claim to your confidence and your support. Respect for its authority, compliance with its laws, acquiescence in its measures, are duties enjoined by the fundamental maxims of true liberty. The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. But the constitution which at any time exists till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people is sacredly obligatory upon all. The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government."
As JVL likes to say, "read the whole thing": it's the textbook of American patriotism.
2. How should Democrats (and everyone else) demonstrate patriotism?
Restate Washington's principles in terms that people today can understand, and remind the people of them. Always declare their loyalty to the principles, and show how any reforms that they propose fit with and further them. Expose how far short Trump and his minions fall from those same principles, and how destructive they are of them. Liberty is STILL a revolutionary principle, and Trump is a counter-revolutionary and should be called out as such.