Patriotism: Why We Need It

American patriotism is fading, and in some places, vanishing altogether.

Douglas Carswell, a former member of the British Parliament who now lives in the U.S., explains why patriotism is so important to the American experiment.

Script:

What kind of future will the United States have if young Americans are taught to have contempt for their country?

To say the least, it’s not a happy prospect.

Yet from all accounts that’s exactly what’s happening.

Ask sixth graders what they know about George Washington and they’re likely to answer: “he owned slaves.”

While that’s true, it’s only one part of Washington’s story. The full story, of course, is that America’s first president was one of the great men of his age, universally admired for his bravery, integrity, and visionary leadership.

Washington was a remarkable man, but only one of many remarkable individuals throughout American history.

This was once taken for granted. Now, it’s barely acknowledged.

For someone who’s admired America from afar and has now made it my home, I find this very troubling. I’ve always considered Americans’ deep love for their country—their patriotism—to be not only part of their charm but a major reason for America’s success.

Now I see that patriotism being undermined, in of all places, America’s classrooms.

The 1619 Project, for example, which contends that America was conceived in racism in 1619 rather than in freedom in 1776, is taught in over forty-five hundred schools. Instead of teaching young Americans to revere their country, the left-leaning educational establishment seems bent on teaching them to be ashamed of it.

Are they succeeding?

From what I’ve seen, patriotism still thrives in much of the country, especially in the South. You can feel it under a thousand Friday night football lights, as the crowd rises for the Star-Spangled Banner. You can sense it in every small-town parade on the Fourth of July.

But there is no question that this patriotism is fading. In fact, in many places, it’s disappearing altogether.

Okay, you might say, so what? Why is this such a big deal?

Because patriotism is the glue that holds America together. To love America is to love the values it stands for: above all, freedom—the value for which America, more than any country in history, has been known.

Freedom of speech, freedom to practice the religion of one’s choice, the freedom to pursue one’s own interest with a minimum of government interference, these are the values that unite Americans, not ethnicity, skin color, or anything else. These are the values that have made America a magnet for the world.

Ronald Reagan once observed that you can live in France, but never become a Frenchman.  Or in Turkey or Japan, without ever becoming Turkish or Japanese. But anyone, from any corner of the world, can come to live in the United States and become an American.

That’s because America is about a set of ideas. To me, a Brit, this feels like magic.

But the magic only works if you buy into these ideas. To do so makes you a patriot.

And if America loses that patriotic spirit?

Well, if that happens, Americans will stop thinking of themselves as individual citizens united by a common set of values and begin to define themselves in terms of their race, ethnicity, religion, or some other designation.

America would soon start to resemble the places its immigrants once fled. “Over here” would become little different from “over there.”

Am I suggesting that America is perfect or even close to it? No one’s ever made that claim.

But before you judge the United States too harshly, you should compare its history with the likes of Germany, Russia, or China—or any country in Africa or South America, for that matter. From that perspective, America looks pretty good.

And the closer you look; the better America looks.

Three times in the twentieth century, America helped rescue the world, in the First World War against German militarism, in the Second World War against the Nazis and the Japanese Empire, and in the Cold War by defeating Soviet Communism.

The left often rages against American ‘imperialism’. That’s nonsense. The United States has had the power to plant its flag almost anywhere on Earth. But what did it do instead? It planted its flag on the moon.

People often think of Americans as being boorishly self-confident, but I find them to be quite humble. Yes, Americans love to loudly celebrate their patriotic holidays, but perhaps the most important day in the American calendar marks neither victories nor battles. It’s Thanksgiving, the day set aside for national gratitude. For good reason. Everyone living in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave—indeed, any American with common sense—has so much to be grateful for.

Whenever and by whatever means their ancestors arrived, they were all the beneficiaries of the hard work and good choices made by those who came before them; choices like declaring independence, setting up a constitutional republic, ending slavery, and fighting fascism and communism.

That’s what should be taught in our schools.

We need to foster a love of America, not contempt for America—if we want to keep America.

I’m Douglas Carswell, president of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy, for Prager University.