By Jim Heffernan
I was drawn to this book by familiarity with one of the authors and a healthy respect for patriotism. It’s a book that I wish I had discovered long ago.
Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer might seem like a strange pairing. Both are sons of immigrants, but somehow different life paths have led them to very similar mindsets.
Liu was raised by Chinese parents and worked for the Clinton and Obama administrations. He developed an idealism that led him to dedicate himself to “civic religion”.
Hanauer was raised by secular Jewish parents who came here from Europe. He became a spectacularly successful entrepreneur who sold one of his companies for $6.4 Billion dollars. He also embraced the idea of “civic religion” and realized that inequality was a serious threat to our well-being.
They call The True Patriot “A Pamplet” and in a way it echoes Thomas Paine’s revolutionary war writings in “The American Crisis”. Thomas Paine’s tag line was, “These are the times that try men’s souls.” I find today’s times also are times that try our souls.
The book was written in 2008 and I’m surprised it sailed past me. I think because it is critical of the left and the right and just extolled patriotism it just didn’t attract attention.
The book almost seems padded by pictures and quotations. The pictures and quotations span America’s history from 17th Century Winthrop to 20th Century JFK and Martin Luther King.
Here’s an excerpt from page 38 that I truly believe encapsulates the book.
True American patriotism means freedom, with responsibility.
Opportunity, with personal initiative. Purpose, through sacrifice and service. Community above self.
Contribution over consumption. Stewardship, not exploitation.
Leadership by example. Pragmatism tied to principle. A fair shot for all.
The authors stop with the speeches in the the 20th century. Toward the end of the book, they put in their own starting on page 92. Here it is, it is a speech that needs to be taken to heart in our century. It’s almost 900 words, but I think it’s worth the read.
Patriotism – A SPEECH TO AMERICA
FRIENDS, FELLOW AMERICANS,
I am a progressive. And I am a patriot.
There are many who think these two things don’t go together. They say that true progressives don’t believe
in patriotism and that true patriots don’t believe in progressivism.
And I am here today to say that they are dead wrong.
Now, these skeptics–these folks who say a progressive patriot is like a fish with wings–come from both the right and the left.
There are many conservatives today who believe the very word “patriot” means not-liberal. In their minds, liberalism is a school of self-hating and self-blaming. In their minds, liberals are weak and ineffectual, too slow to see our enemies, domestic and foreign, and too quick to forgive those enemies. In their minds, liberals know only what is wrong with America and take for granted all that is right.
Never mind that these conservative critics play fast and loose with the truth and sell slander like a brand. The bad news is, they are good at what they do. The worse news is that this phony cartoon image of liberalism has become ingrained in the popular imagination.
And the tragic news is that there are liberals who unwittingly play right into it.
For today, there are too many liberals who have an allergic, reflexive reaction against the very idea of patriotism. In their minds, to be a patriot means to love war or to be an imperialist bully or to be a closed-minded neocon. In their minds, love of country blots out the problems in other countries or the problems that cross national borders. In their minds, conservatives are brutes and simpletons who don’t see all the nuance of the world.
And so, over the last four decades of American politics, the right has grabbed the turf of patriotism. But that’s because the left abandoned it. The right didn’t just steal patriotism; the left left it unprotected.
For years, from Vietnam through the Carter years, from Reagan to the end of the Cold War, from 9/11 to the war in Iraq, a song has been playing over and over in our politics. That song says the right loves America, and the left looks down on it. It says conservatives are proud to wave the flag and proclaim America to be the best, and liberals, embarrassed by the whole chest-thumping spectacle, complain about America’s errors.
And gradually, over the course of these decades, too many average Americans have learned this song. They have decided they fundamentally can’t trust liberals.
Voters may repudiate overreaching conservatives. But they’re not running to embrace uncertain liberals. I’m here today to talk about a new vision of patriotism, one that breaks this paradigm. My aim isn’t just to defend liberals–my liberal friends will come in for plenty of criticism, and I am perfectly willing to admit where conservatives have gotten it right. The spirit of this new patriotism is, like the oldest forms of American patriotism, above faction and party.
True American patriotism belongs neither to liberals nor conservatives. It does not belong to people who think of electoral or partisan advantage first. True American patriotism belongs to us, the common sense people who have grown tired of the left-right tracks of ideologues and ideology. It belongs to common sense people who are willing to sacrifice to create something better for their children, who are yearning to connect to some thing larger than themselves. These people may not know what is ideologically correct. They simply know what makes sense and what works.
For too long, ideologues, both liberals and conservatives, have taken these people too much for granted. Liberals have too often forgotten what values and purpose mean. Conservatives have too often forgotten that their values are not the only values, nor their purpose the only purpose.
Today it is time for us to speak directly to both liberals and conservatives, and to declare that a new, patriotic path–grounded in common sense, guided by traditional virtues, and focused on progress–is the path of our nation’s future. It is time for those of us who love our country, and cannot abide another election of ideology, to declare a new politics of purpose: a renewed American patriotism.
We have grown frustrated by those on the right who call dissent unpatriotic and by those on the left who think dissent is the only measure of their patriotism.
One side says, “If you don’t like it, leave it.” The other side says, “I’ll stay if I like it.” Neither side commits to the actual work of improving our country. The conservatives who say, “My country, right or wrong,” are like permissive parents spoiling a bad child. The liberals who say, “My country, only if right,” are like domineering, manipulative parents withholding their love to get the desired behavior. But true love of country is tough love–and it’s unconditional love. As Senator Carl Schurz stated over a century ago, true patriotism means, “Our country–when right to be kept right; when wrong to be put right.”
Available at Cloud and Leaf Bookstore, Manzanita 144 Pages, Published January 15, 2008
As always, discussion welcome at codger817@gmail.com