Talking About American Society in the Trump Era: Is It Patriotism? Or It Toxic Tribalism?

On the questions-and-answers site Quora, conservative member James Dowry asks:

Why is patriotism now deemed offensive, and how can we stop it?

My reply:

It’s not patriotism per se that is deemed offensive. It’s the nearly-hysterical, exaggerated, almost cult-like jingoism and hyper-nationalism that is extremely offensive.

Speaking as a first-generation U.S.-born citizen whose parents legally immigrated from Colombia in 1961, I am not ashamed to say that I’m an American. I’ve never self-identified as a “hyphenated American,” i.e. Colombian-American, and I’ve never considered claiming dual citizenship, even though it’s perfectly legal to do so. As far as I’m concerned, I was born in the U.S., so I’m American, not Colombian.

I’ve also owned two U.S. flag kits, which enabled me to proudly display the American flag on national holidays and other days in which calendars (mostly those sent every year by veterans’ groups to which either my late mom or I had donated to) indicated. You know, not only on July 4, New Year’s. Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Veterans’ Day, but also on Flag Day, Patriots’ Day, V-E and V-J Days, and the military service “birthdays.”

So, yes, I like having a flag to fly, and I love listening to patriotic music when it is appropriate.

(Sadly, I lost one flag during our 1977-1978 move from one house to another; the other one became unusable after one of the kit parts mysteriously vanished.)

That having been said….

Right-wingers have a long history of appropriating the flag and religion to promote racist dogmas. White Southerners protest the integration of public schools in Little Rock, Ark., in 1957. 

I’m not thrilled to see how “conservatives” have taken the symbols and rituals of our nation and appropriated them as if they are the only true Americans, and everyone who disagrees with them is either stupid, brainwashed, treasonous or un-American.

Whether it’s that annoying Facebook picture frame that proclaims the Christian right’s new mantra I Stand for the Flag, I Kneel for the Cross in profiles that belong to Trump-supporting Republicans, or the claim that all Americans have to support Donald J. Trump without question because he’s the duly elected “POTUS” now, the conservative appropriation of American symbology is both disgusting and worrisome.

I say it’s disgusting because the Make America Great Again crowd’s patriotism is, at best, skin-deep. It’s shallow and extremely superficial, with no real understanding of what love of country means.

Do you want to know what true love of country is?

It’s not putting up red-white-and-blue I Stand for the Flag, I Kneel for the Cross frames on Facebook.

It’s not saying “America First.” Or “Make America Great Again.” Or “President Trump is the best President we’ve EVER had.”

It’s not even flying the flag on national holidays or showing a modicum of respect and deference to national symbols at public gatherings.

It’s less showy and more prosaic than that.

Accepting a summons to serve on a jury and not trying to weasel your way out of it is patriotic.

Paying your share of the tax burden without trying to dodge your obligations to the community is patriotic.

Choosing political leaders on merit, rather than partisan reasons, is patriotic.

Trying to understand others’ political views without resorting to attacking or mocking them is patriotic.

Understanding the Constitution in its entirety, rather than clinging to the ones one prefers, and adopting an attitude that reflects wisdom instead of provincial self-interest, is patriotic.

But what “conservatives” in the era of Trump call “patriotism,” others see as hysterical nationalism running amok.

I mean, when Trump supporters look down on their fellow Americans who are neither members of the Donald Trump Fan Club or share their “conservative” beliefs, that’s not patriotism. It’s tribalism.

When self-identified Republicans state, either orally or in written form, that the Democratic Party is socialist, Communist, Marxist, and wants to destroy the country (“they want to turn it into another Cuba…or Venezuela…”), that’s not patriotism. That’s toxic tribalism.

(I can’t emphasize this point strongly enough. It has gotten to the point in which “conservatives” refuse to call the Democratic Party by its proper name. Instead, like bratty kids having a tantrum, they call it the “Democrat Party” or, even worse, descend into childish churlishness and call it the “Democrap Party” or the “DemoKKKrat Party.”)

Do you see that footage from the early days of the Civil Rights movement? Well, “conservatives” (meaning people who resist cultural and political change) also appropriated the American flag and other symbols of national identity and even police authority to justify their stances.

Jingoism, hyper-nationalism, and extravagant displays of “flag worship” are not true patriotism. They are theatrics, intended to stir up primal fears and the feeling of “My tribe is superior to your tribe.”

You want to see where else such theatrics were used so effectively to stir up tribalism, the sense of belonging to “something great,” and intimidate “the other”?

This is why “patriotism” is considered to be obscene.

Because, sweet summer child, rallies and flag worship and claiming that one political philosophy is the only true way is not “love of country” or “patriotism.”

It’s toxic tribalism at its worst.