Thursday, January 19, 2017

Why aren't Liberals more Patriotic?

Apparently, I'm a bit of an American contradiction.  If you know me first as a veteran, then you're surprised to learn that I'm liberal, socially and politically.  If you know me first as an activist, then you're surprised to learn I spent two decades in the military.  Why is that?

If you listen to conservative outlets, you'd believe that they have a special hold on patriotic sentiment, support of the military, and our founding principles.  They certainly think so.  And they proudly lay out the flags and bunting, yellow ribbons, and blast Lee Greenwood to prove it is so.

While not presuming to speak for any of my military sisters and brothers, I will say that we're a pretty diverse group.  Many are indeed highly conservative in their views, but just as many are liberals.  And quite a few lean libertarian.  Does serving in the military make one uniquely patriotic?  Of course not.  But the modern conversation of what "Patriotism" is can't seem to help but entangle the two.

It raises the question: what does American Patriotism mean today?  Can you love your country and still acknowledge that it has a lot of problems that need to be fixed?  Can you be a patriot and disagree with the direction the national government is taking?  Can you treasure the values upon which our nation is based while still acknowledging that we have fallen disastrously short of those aspirations time and again?

Yeah, I think so.

I think of the conservative brand of patriotism, as it is currently constructed and portrayed, as somewhat childlike.  The word comes from the Greek "patris" which means "fatherland".  And when you're young, you look up to your father as a pillar of virtue and excellence.  You want to emulate him.  You want to BE him.  It's only as we get older that we learn (often to our disappointment) that nobody's perfect.  Fathers come off the pedestal and down into the real world with the rest of us.  Hopefully, that new insight gives us new respect and love for our fathers.  This crap is HARD and they did their best, regardless of their imperfections.  It's that quiet respect that grows and endures for the rest of our lives.

And this is the heart of liberal patriotism.  I love my country.  But I also know it is deeply flawed.  And yet, I see in it the greatness, growth, improvement, and potential for so much more.  We've failed time and time again.  Yet, we have also gotten SO MUCH BETTER too.  So my liberal patriotism has grown into that quiet, open-eyed respect.  Bunting be damned.

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