{"id":1034,"date":"2026-07-03T10:10:26","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T10:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1034"},"modified":"2026-07-03T10:10:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T10:10:26","slug":"patriotism-has-become-too-controversial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1034","title":{"rendered":"Patriotism Has Become Too Controversial"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

On the eve of <\/span>the country\u2019s 250th birthday, the very concept of patriotism feels fraught. In a new YouGov poll, 55 percent of American citizens said the country is less patriotic than it used to be, and roughly 35 percent admitted the same about themselves, most of them Democrats. Pride in the country\u2019s past or faith in its future has also become politicized. The president has a habit of calling everything and everyone he dislikes \u201cunpatriotic,\u201d including journalists, protesters, Supreme Court justices, and lawmakers who vote to rein in his war powers.<\/p>\n

Read more The Other Case for Birthright Citizenship<\/a><\/p>\n

At a Fourth of July picnic at the home of a colleague some years ago, the host asked the group if we all felt patriotic. The question seemed like a breach of etiquette. We were eating hot dogs and hamburgers ostensibly to celebrate the founding of our nation, but a few people around the table squirmed slightly with embarrassment. The language felt both charged and alien. Only one member of the party had grown up in a home that flew the flag.<\/p>\n

Among American progressives, I\u2019ve noticed a temptation to reject patriotism as a kind of jingoism, tainted by xenophobia, racism, and other forms of bigotry. On the college campus where I work, any talk of patriotism will likely feature Samuel Johnson\u2019s barb that love of country is \u201cthe last refuge of a scoundrel.\u201d Or maybe George Bernard Shaw\u2019s remark that patriotism is \u201ca conviction that a particular country is the best in the world because you were born in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the anti-patriots have the best lines, they also misrepresent the concept, especially as it\u2019s been practiced in America. Patriotism is, above all, a form of loyalty. Much of American life would be lost without it. But the ideals that forged the country as a place of liberty, equality, and freedom\u2014one that welcomes immigrants and tolerates difference\u2014make patriotism here capacious enough to include both pride in America\u2019s accomplishments and shame in its shortcomings.<\/p>\n

A love of country can coexist with a fierce criticism of it, and peaceful protest is arguably the epitome of patriotism. It is the work of those who love a country strongly enough to insist on trying to close the gap between what it is and what it could be.<\/p>\n

The right of resistance<\/span> is intrinsic to America\u2019s bedrock values. This is a country founded on rebellion, and the subversive ethos that empowered early colonialists to throw off the yoke of the British Crown is enshrined in the country\u2019s foundational documents. The Declaration of Independence states that if ever a government fails to heed the \u201cself-evident\u201d truths \u201cthat all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,\u201d then \u201cit is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patriotic loyalty is not to any one government, but to the rights that government is meant to protect and sustain. And as Henry David Thoreau argued in \u201cCivil Disobedience,\u201d a love of country need not necessitate a love of government. Rather, good citizens must withdraw support from their government in cases where doing otherwise would violate one\u2019s conscience.<\/p>\n

Personal conscience is surely a slippery metric of justice. The politics of conscience in America have inspired the abolitionist movement, protests against the Vietnam War, and a Kentucky county clerk\u2019s refusal to grant licenses for same-sex marriages. One person\u2019s noble rebellion may meet another person\u2019s definition of bigotry.<\/p>\n

Read more The Man Who Invented American Popular Music Turns 200<\/a><\/p>\n

Yet a patriotic understanding of civil disobedience has also informed some of the most constructive social movements of the past century, including Mahatma Gandhi\u2019s peaceful protest against Britain\u2019s imperial rule in India, the American civil-rights movement, and countless other efforts to bridge the gap between a country\u2019s shortcomings and its ideals. As James Baldwin wrote in Notes of a Native Son<\/i>, in 1955: \u201cI love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some progressives dismiss America\u2019s past and promise, insisting instead that the country was founded to preserve white supremacy\u2014that the rot, essentially, runs too deep. This does a disservice to the generations of Americans whose patriotism motivated them to achieve a more perfect union. Slavery and racism may be an irreparable stain on America, but they are not the essence of America.<\/p>\n

The practice of slavery was contested from the beginning. Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton headed abolitionist societies. Upon George Washington\u2019s death, his will freed his slaves and provided for their future education and provision. He and other slave owners plainly understood that the practice was wrong. There are good reasons to question any leader who fails to grasp the meaning of those \u201cinalienable rights,\u201d but the problem is not with the rights or with the ideals of freedom and equality that inspired them.<\/p>\n

In his \u201cLetter From Birmingham Jail,\u201d Martin Luther King Jr. appealed to the country to live up to its principles. \u201cWe have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights,\u201d he wrote. He coupled his protests against racial segregation with a deference to the rule of law: \u201cI submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.\u201d<\/p>\n

American patriotism, moreover, has always been aspirational. The phrase e pluribus unum<\/i> (\u201cout of many, one\u201d) graces our currency. The words Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free<\/span> adorn the Statue of Liberty. A country demonstrates its worthiness of loyalty by acknowledging the ways it has fallen short of its principles. Consider Ronald Reagan\u2019s apology to Japanese Americans for their internment during World War II.<\/p>\n

If patriotism must be reclaimed on the left, it must also be recaptured from those on the right who have politicized the term with strict ideas about who is worthy of America\u2019s promise and who isn\u2019t. Many conservatives have dismissed activists who protest the president and his agenda as \u201cun-American.\u201d This forgets not only the rights enshrined in the Constitution, but also the command to remind lawmakers that their power comes from the consent of the governed.<\/p>\n

A common feature of American protests\u2014against the Vietnam War, the results of the 2020 presidential election, or the current administration\u2019s aggressive crackdowns on immigrants\u2014has been to fly the American flag upside down. This is the gesture of citizens who worry that a country they love may be straying from its mission. This is the gesture of Americans who love their country, but also see it clearly: as flawed and sometimes unfair, but also valuable, essential, beautiful, and full of promise.<\/p>\n

Read more The Surprising Return of the Blockbuster Trump Book<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Love and shame can be sides of a coin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ideas"],"yoast_head":"\nPatriotism Has Become Too Controversial - Commercial Relocation Pros<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1034\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Patriotism Has Become Too Controversial - Commercial Relocation Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Love and shame can be sides of a coin.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1034\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Commercial Relocation Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-03T10:10:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1034#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1034\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3a3374a445f1b5d4852b1d7c15b9fe3a\"},\"headline\":\"Patriotism Has Become Too Controversial\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-03T10:10:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1034\"},\"wordCount\":1196,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1034#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/b6db98de0f713da4b1417b9b082380ae.avif\",\"articleSection\":[\"Ideas\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1034#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1034\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=1034\",\"name\":\"Patriotism Has Become Too Controversial - 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