And thank you so much for your thoughtful words -- they touched me deeply.
And you have read me perfectly. I am indeed as depressed as I have been since the deaths of my parents two decades ago. I know... I should be happy I've been able to go that long without such a serious depression.
I understand completely how concerned your son is about the future for his children. Perhaps we can take some solace in the thought that enough people will begin to feel that same concern about their children and realize that, as our "child," this country is suffering from a deadly illness that requires all of us to work together to nurture it back to health. The Senators and Representatives must be the first and strongest to do so.
Thank you for your participation in the President's Day protest. I'm waiting for one close enough for me to join as well. Like you, I've told my sister where she can find all the necessary legal documents. She's happily agreed to adopt my pup as well, if necessary.
These are clearly depressing times. Unimagined even by those of us who knew this next Trump administration was going to be hell.
Trump is so fucking embarrassing. What a buffoon! Ignorance is bliss. Maybe someday our equally embarrassing legislative branch will WAKE THE F-UP. If they would simply stand up to the thug and do what is in the best interest of their children and grandchildren…
Ah yes, it is me that needs to wake up… it’s not gonna happen. Eventually, we’ll have to take to the streets if we want our country back!
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.
Abstractly I know that to love our country is to love the principles on which it as founded. But when more than half of its people approve of what Trump is doing, it is more than difficult to wave the flag proudly. I cannot love a country that I am ashamed of.
In retrospect, I'm surprised that Russ Vought and the other Heritage goblins who developed Project 2025 didn't press Trump to appoint John Mearsheimer or one of his acolytes as Secretary of State.
Rubio will follow his orders and do what he can to make the Rape of Ukraine a reality, but there will be little joy in it for him. A professional "Realist" would have done the job with genuine gusto, and not be troubled by the nightmares that may well haunt L'il Marco for the rest of his life.
I love the American People - many of them at least. I used to live there. The current regime makes me sick to the stomach. What you patriots can do is rally to express your support to the Ukrainians, not us the Danes, we are fine, there is a schoolyard bully around, so what? But the Ukrainians suffer and are now being butchered by Russia East and its sidekick the Trump regime. Get up and show your support, send them help!
"you can’t sue Elon for breaking the government if he’s not technically the one doing it!—but out in the real world it doesn’t pass the smell test. " And yet our courts are hamstrung by having to bend over backwards to accommodate this obvious dodge. Didn't Fox News successfully argue that it's not a news network but entertainment and therefore cannot be subject to normal standards? MAGA is strangling us with our own norms. I wish I knew how pro-Constitutionalists can find a way to take off gloves.
Thanks for your thoughts about patriotism, Mr. kristol! I’m with you all the way! I stay in touch with the sad reality of today, but I’ve turned my attention to NCAA’s basketball for my joy!
There were some really tough realities for America at the beginning of the Revolution, the Civil War and World War II....major defeats and a stinging realization that we weren't really prepared when we should have been and that failure was going to cost us dearly. We got up and fought on because we were right and we fought though those defeats and tough realities. You can only have the land of the free if its still the home of the brave
Why hasn't a prominent democrat; AOC, Gavin Newsom, Josh Shapiro, announced their candidacy for the 2028 presidency? It would immediately grant them a giant megaphone with which to call attention to every bit of corruption and anti-democratic behavior of this administration. And those messages would reach into Maga-land because Fox News would pretty much have to cover them...??
Trump and the GOP should hang for this treasonous, unconstitutional action. This is a coup, an insurrection fully supported by the entire GOP and MAGA and so are the enemy and should be treated as such.
They had a few snippets from the meeting in Saudi Arabia on the PBS News Hour tonight. Rubio looked like he was in a hostage video, while the jokers sitting on either side of him seemed perfectly comfortable. Perhaps Rubio thought he could be the grown-up in the room when he took that job and that it would be better for him to be sitting atop the State Department than for some clown like Hegseth. If he ever had any such illusion, today should have shattered it. If he has any sense of integrity, he should get out now, and follow the example of the prosecutors in the Southern District of New York in publicly stating why. This is a day of shame for the United States.
I served in the Australian military, and got to know many American service men & women whilst I wore the uniform of our country (fine people). We, like they, saluted the national flag when it passed, or was raised or lowered. We, like they, served because we loved our nation & felt it was a way for us to give back, to serve our fellow countrymen and women, and if needed to protect our country against those who would do us harm.
Since leaving the military years ago, I have never had a flag flying at my residence, netiher have any of my military friends. In talking to the couple of Americans I kept in contact with it's the same with them. We don't need to fly a piece of cloth to procalim our love of country, we have proved our love already and snicker at those who feel the need to drape a flag all over themselves, because it's all for show. It's to say I'm more "insert nationality here" than you are! We have dickheads here in Australia that do it every year on Australia Day, and I'm sure you've got he same over there on July 4th lol. Loving your country means you love it every day of the year, not just on holidays!
You don't have to join your military to prove your love for your country, that's not the point of this post (although actively avoiding service because of 'bone spurs' sure says something). You prove your love of country by how you act day to day. By wanting your neighbours to do well because they are your neighbours, they are your country. If someone's house catches fire in your neighbourhood and you try and grab a hose to put it out, or make sure the occupants are safe, that is serving your country. You might have a job that serves your local community in some way, or volunteer for a charity or your local fire brigade, that is serving your country. Even if you just live day to day, working hard to make a living or raise your family, breaking no laws and treating your fellow citizens with decency and respect, that is also serving your country.
Patriotism is what you do and how you live, not what you wear or say.
To Republicans, "patriotism" is a cudgel to hit your political opposition with, a hollow, shallow cudgel, meaningless in their unconstitutional actions that are allowed to destroy our liberal government. They should hang by their necks until dead.
I don't know if I am in Bill Kristol's generation, but during my lifetime I have opposed my governments role in Vietnam and Iraq (and its subsequent negative impact on a justified war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afganistan.) My government lied to me and to the world in both military actions. I am proud of the progress of women and minorities toward dignity, inclusion and equity. . I am distraught at the tear down of that progress with NO response from the Republican led House or Senate. I'm proud of our history of immigration through its fractured history and have hoped for years for an updated immigration policy that honored all parties. I know Republicans (current and past) don't like to own it, but there is a thru line from Trump and this current administration straight back to Reagan and his enablers. I know what patriotism is, I know what my country claims to be and I know how far we have fallen short through our history---and how we get up and try again after we get rid of those who disgrace everything US claims and some us try to make it.
And thank you so much for your thoughtful words -- they touched me deeply.
And you have read me perfectly. I am indeed as depressed as I have been since the deaths of my parents two decades ago. I know... I should be happy I've been able to go that long without such a serious depression.
I understand completely how concerned your son is about the future for his children. Perhaps we can take some solace in the thought that enough people will begin to feel that same concern about their children and realize that, as our "child," this country is suffering from a deadly illness that requires all of us to work together to nurture it back to health. The Senators and Representatives must be the first and strongest to do so.
Thank you for your participation in the President's Day protest. I'm waiting for one close enough for me to join as well. Like you, I've told my sister where she can find all the necessary legal documents. She's happily agreed to adopt my pup as well, if necessary.
These are clearly depressing times. Unimagined even by those of us who knew this next Trump administration was going to be hell.
Trump is so fucking embarrassing. What a buffoon! Ignorance is bliss. Maybe someday our equally embarrassing legislative branch will WAKE THE F-UP. If they would simply stand up to the thug and do what is in the best interest of their children and grandchildren…
Ah yes, it is me that needs to wake up… it’s not gonna happen. Eventually, we’ll have to take to the streets if we want our country back!
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.
Abstractly I know that to love our country is to love the principles on which it as founded. But when more than half of its people approve of what Trump is doing, it is more than difficult to wave the flag proudly. I cannot love a country that I am ashamed of.
In retrospect, I'm surprised that Russ Vought and the other Heritage goblins who developed Project 2025 didn't press Trump to appoint John Mearsheimer or one of his acolytes as Secretary of State.
Rubio will follow his orders and do what he can to make the Rape of Ukraine a reality, but there will be little joy in it for him. A professional "Realist" would have done the job with genuine gusto, and not be troubled by the nightmares that may well haunt L'il Marco for the rest of his life.
I love the American People - many of them at least. I used to live there. The current regime makes me sick to the stomach. What you patriots can do is rally to express your support to the Ukrainians, not us the Danes, we are fine, there is a schoolyard bully around, so what? But the Ukrainians suffer and are now being butchered by Russia East and its sidekick the Trump regime. Get up and show your support, send them help!
"you can’t sue Elon for breaking the government if he’s not technically the one doing it!—but out in the real world it doesn’t pass the smell test. " And yet our courts are hamstrung by having to bend over backwards to accommodate this obvious dodge. Didn't Fox News successfully argue that it's not a news network but entertainment and therefore cannot be subject to normal standards? MAGA is strangling us with our own norms. I wish I knew how pro-Constitutionalists can find a way to take off gloves.
Thanks for your thoughts about patriotism, Mr. kristol! I’m with you all the way! I stay in touch with the sad reality of today, but I’ve turned my attention to NCAA’s basketball for my joy!
There were some really tough realities for America at the beginning of the Revolution, the Civil War and World War II....major defeats and a stinging realization that we weren't really prepared when we should have been and that failure was going to cost us dearly. We got up and fought on because we were right and we fought though those defeats and tough realities. You can only have the land of the free if its still the home of the brave
Goddamn even Meghan McCain…ya hate to see it😓
I’ve grown increasingly clinically depressed at all of this and not gonna lie it’s been taking a toll😣😞
Why hasn't a prominent democrat; AOC, Gavin Newsom, Josh Shapiro, announced their candidacy for the 2028 presidency? It would immediately grant them a giant megaphone with which to call attention to every bit of corruption and anti-democratic behavior of this administration. And those messages would reach into Maga-land because Fox News would pretty much have to cover them...??
Trump and the GOP should hang for this treasonous, unconstitutional action. This is a coup, an insurrection fully supported by the entire GOP and MAGA and so are the enemy and should be treated as such.
They had a few snippets from the meeting in Saudi Arabia on the PBS News Hour tonight. Rubio looked like he was in a hostage video, while the jokers sitting on either side of him seemed perfectly comfortable. Perhaps Rubio thought he could be the grown-up in the room when he took that job and that it would be better for him to be sitting atop the State Department than for some clown like Hegseth. If he ever had any such illusion, today should have shattered it. If he has any sense of integrity, he should get out now, and follow the example of the prosecutors in the Southern District of New York in publicly stating why. This is a day of shame for the United States.
“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” -JFK
"Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what it can do for ME" - Trump and Musk
I served in the Australian military, and got to know many American service men & women whilst I wore the uniform of our country (fine people). We, like they, saluted the national flag when it passed, or was raised or lowered. We, like they, served because we loved our nation & felt it was a way for us to give back, to serve our fellow countrymen and women, and if needed to protect our country against those who would do us harm.
Since leaving the military years ago, I have never had a flag flying at my residence, netiher have any of my military friends. In talking to the couple of Americans I kept in contact with it's the same with them. We don't need to fly a piece of cloth to procalim our love of country, we have proved our love already and snicker at those who feel the need to drape a flag all over themselves, because it's all for show. It's to say I'm more "insert nationality here" than you are! We have dickheads here in Australia that do it every year on Australia Day, and I'm sure you've got he same over there on July 4th lol. Loving your country means you love it every day of the year, not just on holidays!
You don't have to join your military to prove your love for your country, that's not the point of this post (although actively avoiding service because of 'bone spurs' sure says something). You prove your love of country by how you act day to day. By wanting your neighbours to do well because they are your neighbours, they are your country. If someone's house catches fire in your neighbourhood and you try and grab a hose to put it out, or make sure the occupants are safe, that is serving your country. You might have a job that serves your local community in some way, or volunteer for a charity or your local fire brigade, that is serving your country. Even if you just live day to day, working hard to make a living or raise your family, breaking no laws and treating your fellow citizens with decency and respect, that is also serving your country.
Patriotism is what you do and how you live, not what you wear or say.
To Republicans, "patriotism" is a cudgel to hit your political opposition with, a hollow, shallow cudgel, meaningless in their unconstitutional actions that are allowed to destroy our liberal government. They should hang by their necks until dead.
I don't know if I am in Bill Kristol's generation, but during my lifetime I have opposed my governments role in Vietnam and Iraq (and its subsequent negative impact on a justified war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afganistan.) My government lied to me and to the world in both military actions. I am proud of the progress of women and minorities toward dignity, inclusion and equity. . I am distraught at the tear down of that progress with NO response from the Republican led House or Senate. I'm proud of our history of immigration through its fractured history and have hoped for years for an updated immigration policy that honored all parties. I know Republicans (current and past) don't like to own it, but there is a thru line from Trump and this current administration straight back to Reagan and his enablers. I know what patriotism is, I know what my country claims to be and I know how far we have fallen short through our history---and how we get up and try again after we get rid of those who disgrace everything US claims and some us try to make it.