The president has spread abroad a kind of patriotism that is foreign to this great nation. His actions have mimicked King George III of England, for whom patriotism was obedience.
In the Declaration of Independence, we (mainly white males) claimed our freedom from being mere subjects of a king to being citizens of a nation.
In that document, our Founding Fathers charged the king had “excited domestic insurrection among us” and “erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people.”
Richard Conville
They further accused the king of “obstructing the laws of naturalization of foreigners” and “abolishing our most valuable laws.” See the much longer list in the Declaration.
The president also has mimicked today’s autocrats who currently govern their lands with impunity — Putin of Russia, Xi of China, Un of North Korea. They are the president’s role models and share his simple creed, “I alone can fix it.”
The time has come to declare a New Patriotism:
Patriotism is not violating the separation of powers as articulated in Articles I, II and III of the Constitution. Patriotism is not standing idly by while the president violates the separation of powers articles in the Constitution.
Patriotism is not substituting ridicule for rational argument. Patriotism is not substituting executive orders for congressional legislation.
Patriotism is not sowing doubt about the safety of mail-in ballots. Patriotism is not threatening to send troops to voting polls. Patriotism is not forcing states to turn over their voter rolls to the Justice Department.
“Patriotism is not substituting ridicule for rational argument.”
Patriotism is not appointing a fellow New York real estate developer as the nation’s chief negotiator with Iran. Patriotism is not appointing people with no intelligence training as director of national intelligence. Patriotism is not appointing a former Oklahoma state trooper as director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Patriotism is not appointing a former Fox News contributor as secretary of defense. Patriotism is not confirming unqualified presidential appointees.
Patriotism is not calling the press the enemy of the people. Patriotism is not insulting and ridiculing news reporters. Patriotism is not substituting press gaggles in the Oval Office for actual press conferences.
Patriotism is not abolishing USAID. Patriotism is not firing federal agency inspectors general. Patriotism is not cutting SNAP funding. Patriotism is not allowing ACA premiums to increase. Patriotism is not cutting the pandemic tracking system at the CDC.
Patriotism is not favoring evangelical Christianity over other religious traditions. Patriotism is not posting the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. Patriotism is not trashing the concept of separation of church and state. Patriotism is not selling personalized copies of the King James Version of the Bible.
Patriotism is not sweeping neighborhoods for nonwhite people without probable cause. Patriotism is not holding those people without due process. Patriotism is not detaining people indefinitely, ignoring the rule of habeas corpus. Patriotism is not denying detainees equal protection under the law. Patriotism is not holding detainees in unsafe and unsanitary conditions.
In the previous sentences (Patriotism is not …), if you imagine a colon follows the word “is,” then you have examples of actual patriotic action, the kind we need in the presidency. For example, patriotism is: “not holding people suspected of a crime for a prolonged time without benefit of counsel.”
“I want our president to be a patriot. He is not.”
I want our president to be a patriot. He is not. His love of self and money and power outweighs his love of country.
Just after this Fourth of July and the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America, consider anew what it means to be a patriot. I like the way German immigrant and major general in the Union Army, U.S. Sen. Carl Schurz of Missouri put it in 1872, “My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.”
Above all, I invite us all to renew our commitment to be patriots and begin to “set right” this still great nation (The current path is the road to perdition).
I pray we all will dedicate to that effort “our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor,” as our Founding Fathers did 250 years ago in signing the Declaration of Independence. Godspeed.
Richard Conville is professor emeritus of communication studies and service learning at the University of Southern Mississippi and a longtime resident of Hattiesburg, where he is a member of University Baptist Church.