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Nationalism and Patriotism

It has occurred to me, over the years of watching my fellow Americans, that there is a difference between nationalism and patriotism. It also appears that many people don't know the difference. I'm not even sure if it's proper for me to use the words that I use for the two groups that I see. But it is clear that there are these two groups, and in my personal lexicon, these are the two words I've come to label them with.

So what is the difference? The difference lies in what they are loyal to. Most of the time, the difference is difficult to spot. In the best of times, their goals align perfectly, and you can't tell the difference at all. But in times of stress, or when confronted with certain issues, the difference becomes visible, even glaring. Both are ostensively loyal to the USA, both love their country, but in truth the object of their affection differs. The former loves an institution and its trappings, while the latter loves an ideal and its principles.

Perhaps the best way to see the difference is through examples. One of the clearest is their reaction to the idea of a constitutional amendment banning flag burning. Nationalists support it because they love the flag, and want to protect it. Patriots oppose it because they love the American ideals that the flag represents, and such an amendment would be an assault on those ideals of liberty and freedom of expression.

"Now wait a minute," the astute reader might say, "aren't you just defining patriotism to match your own views on things, to justify your own self-image as a true patriot?" Certainly, a case could be made that this is indeed my motive, and indeed the motive of nearly everyone who engages in the act of trying to define 'patriotism'. By now, you've probably already formed an opinion of my view, and the motive behind your opinion is the same. But the truth of any proposition is independent of the motives of the person who proposes it. The important question here is not why I think what I do, the question is, is it true? Are there good reasons for thinking what I think on the subject?

Believe it or not, I did not come up with this definition by working backwards from my opinions on issues to what definition would justify them. I came up with it by working forward from a premise that certain people were indeed patriots. If what it means to be a patriot is in question, then who is or isn't a patriot is in question, but I figured if there are certain historical figures who we can rest assured were patriots, we could do the reverse, weeding out bad definitions of patriotism based on their agreement with the given facts.

So, we start with our given: the founding fathers were patriots. I take this as a given, since I take it that any definition that would imply that George Washington or Thomas Jefferson was not a patriot would be absurd. If Ben Franklin or Thomas Paine don't fit into someone else's notion of what it means to be a patriot, then I'm not going to be overly concerned with the fact that I don't either.

So, what exactly was it that these people loved? What were they fighting for?

Did these people fight for the flag? Nope -- the Stars and Stripes hadn't been created yet. Okay, but did they fight for the flag they were born under? No, in fact they fought a war against those who were fighting for that flag. True patriots do not fight and die for a flag -- those who say we need to protect the flag because it's what our forefathers fought and died for have no idea what our forefathers fought and died for.

Were they fighting because it's what their government asked them to do? Again, no -- in fact their government was what they rebelled against. Ah, but they were fighting for the government yet to come, right? That's the government they were loyal to (and we should be to). Sorry, no, that would be the government they tried and then threw out 11 years later when it didn't work. Clearly these men had no particular affection for any government, not even the ones they created.

When these people fought for their country, they were not fighting for a flag, and they weren't fighting for a government, either. There was no United States at the time -- America was just an ideal, and it was that ideal that they fought for, fought to try to bring about, to bring that ideal into reality. That's what patriots do, then and now -- try to bring that ideal into reality.

"But, they already did it! Surely that can't be what modern patriots must do, if the task has already been done." But it isn't done! Take a look at the ideals they wrote about. Have all of them been fully realized? Have any of them? These are still things that need to be fought for, and the true patriot is the one that does what they did -- continues to fight for those ideals.

"But those ideals aren't what's really important -- our forefathers only fought for them because it's what they believed was in the country's best interest." That would certainly not be true for many of these men, Jefferson, Paine, and Franklin in particular, but perhaps I'm looking too closely at the most idealistic of the group, and not coincidentally, those with whom I most agree.

The defining moment, when I saw the difference most clearly, was not in fact when the flag burning issue came up; I merely use that as the most clear cut example. For me, the difference became clear when the elder George Bush criticized Bill Clinton for participating in protests against the Vietnam War, saying that it was an unpatriotic act. But wait, didn't Bill Clinton think at that that the war was not in the nation's best interest? He was right, but that's not actually relevant, the point is, if he genuinely did think that, then would not patriotism require that he act as he did? Given what he believed, it would have been unpatriotic of him to refrain from protest. If nothing else, this example showed that Bush was a nationalist, and had no idea what real patriotism is. (Of course, whether Bill Clinton was actually a patriot or not is an open question...)

Here's the real annoying thing about this other definition of patriotism. If indeed to be patriotic is to do what you think is in the nation's best interest, it becomes damn near impossible to brand the people who disagree with you as unpatriotic. As long as they're doing what they think is in the nation's best interest, they're patriotic too. There were patriots who were for the war, and patriots who were against it. This is doubtless true, no matter which war we're talking about. You can no longer spot the patriots by which side of the protest line they are on.

The nationalists, at least, are easy to spot. They wrap themselves in the red, white and blue. Their houses have American flags hanging by the front door, their cars have flag decals and bumper stickers, their walls are decorated with art depicting bald eagles, and one I know even has a bald eagle statue on his desk.

My temptation is always to contrast such people with true patriots, as if nationalism precludes patriotism, but alas, some of these people are patriots, too. Even some of the ones that don't know the difference.