This is our country’s Semiquincentennial, which marks the 250th year of our nation’s existence. We will celebrate our birthday on July 4th with all the pomp and circumstance appropriate for the occasion. With patriotism on our minds, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on the true meaning of the term. What it means to be “patriotic”.
I’m sure most of us have some ideas about patriotism, but at the same time I feel some are confused. Some people seem to think that patriotism and nationalism are the same thing. I thought I would try to clear up some of this confusion. While patriotism is a love of one’s country and its people with the shared intent to improve life for all of its citizens, nationalism is a more aggressive belief in the superiority of that nation. Nationalists often define unity by ethnicity, religion, or culture and view other nations as inferior rivals or threats.
While pride in one’s country is easy to understand, nationalism requires a bit more evaluation as it is a multi-headed dragon that often confuses love and hate. Patriotism is rooted in civic virtue and a shared sense of the democratic values of liberty, equality, and the rule of law. Its distant cousin, nationalism, has many names including “white nationalism” or “Christian nationalism” or a combination of both identities in the term “white Christian nationalism.” These compound terms have seen a political resurgence in recent years.
All iterations of nationalism are rooted in identity, power, and exclusion. They confuse identity with a set of ideals and confuse self-determination with an exclusionary fear of external “others.” As the name would imply, white nationalism is an explicitly racialized form of nationalism which seeks to advance a racial hierarchy where those “others” are the enemy of the white race.
White Christian nationalism expands the enemy to include all non-Christians. They seek to be a nation governed by white Christians and they see secularism and religious diversity as existential threats.
In all forms of nationalism, the erosion of civil liberties and an abandonment of democratic norms are justified to advance their cause. A concentration of power in an authoritarian leader is perhaps a necessary evil to bring about their vision of a more perfect world. Discrimination is legitimized with fear and resentment, tools to achieve an end.
While actual patriotism parallels John F. Kennedy’s famous question, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,” nationalism asks who deserves to own the country. Understanding the difference between patriotism and nationalism is key to having a society where belonging is founded on shared values rather than religion, race, or ideology. Abandoning democracy should never be the price of national pride.
When you see religious symbols conflicted with patriotic ones or any confusion of national pride as the exclusive trait of an ethnic group, just know that you are witnessing the ugly side of nationalism. It has little to do with the intent of our founding leaders when they wrote our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, and fought and died to gain our independence from a tyranny that would deny those ideals.
When asked about the differences between patriotism and nationalism, an Episcopal priest wrote: "Patriotism is love. It's gratitude. It's saying, 'I care about my country enough to tell the truth about it, to celebrate what's good and work to fix what's broken. Nationalism, that's idolatry. It says my nation is the nation above critique, above others, God's favorite. And once you slap God's seal of approval on your own flag, congratulations, you've just made your country a 'golden calf.'"
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