Here’s the Merriam-Webster dictionary definition: “A person who vigorously supports their country and is prepared to defend it against enemies or detractors.”
Seems reasonable. So, who among these people or groups do you consider to be patriots?
· Health care workers protesting vaccine mandates
· Colin Kaepernick
· People who protest the 2020 presidential election outcome
· Black Lives Matter protestors
Credit: Marshall Gorby
Credit: Marshall Gorby
The answer is all of them. But it’s no surprise Democrats think vaccine and election protesters aren’t patriots and Republicans believe Kaepernick and BLM want to tear down the country.
I asked Rob Baker, a professor of political science at Wittenberg University, to help me better understand how “patriot” has become such a divisive term. You have to go back to World War II to understand.
Back then, America had a common enemy — the German government. We came together as a people to defeat the world’s most dangerous menace. Black soldiers even fought alongside White soldiers in the Battle of the Bulge, more out of necessity than an early racial awakening. Still, the moment showed how we could all come together.
But then things changed. In the 1960s America was polarized on two issues — Vietnam and civil rights.
“Those who were opposed to the civil rights activists, who were opposed to the protests of the war, saw them as unpatriotic,” Baker said. “And those who were protesting believed it was their patriotic duty to do that. So that was a significant break.”
That was the era in which some believed that the long-haired hippie types and civil rights agitators simply wanted to stomp out the existing social order.
“That period time really broke down the connections that we had in that post World War II period and began to split us,” Baker said. “That began to lead us toward this highly partisan notion of a patriot.”
We came together again, briefly, on Sept. 11, 2001, and for a short while afterward. We once again had that common enemy —terrorists.
Since then, we can’t even agree whether smiling is a good thing. Patriotism now comes with caveats, at least among some groups.
One group believes, according to Baker, “You’ve got to love your country no matter what.” You stand, take off your hat, salute the flag and stand with your hand over your heart when you hear the national anthem.
“On the other side of the coin, people are kneeling like Kaepernick and protesting the murder of George Floyd, and there’s the Me Too movement and Black Lives Matter,” Baker said. “They’re saying, ‘We’re being good patriots because we’re recognizing that things are not happening the way that they should. We’re not living up to our values so the only way we can be good patriots is to protest. We’re doing what we should do.’”
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Credit: JIM NOELKER
We should not use patriot as a divisive term. Americans love their country, warts and all. More than 3 in 4 Americans, according to Pew, believe this country is the greatest or one of the greatest in the world. And let’s not derail the point over the phrase “one of the greatest.” You can argue Japan does better with literacy and New Zealand with violent crime. But the point stands — as a whole, with everything we have to offer, we think a lot of the USA.
There will also be the voice that shouts, “No, those people don’t love our country!” and that’s just tired. They love the country; just different than you.
Patriots stand up when things are right and protest when they see things as wrong. I’ll go back to my previous example. If you’re going to do your patriotic duty and protest against vaccine mandates or wearing a mask, then have the same respect for BLM protestors or the next time someone kneels, because they simply see patriotism differently than you.
Acknowledge we are all patriots. We just show it differently. That’s a strength, not a weakness.
Ray Marcano’s column appears every Sunday on these pages. He can be reached at raymarcanoddn@gmail.com