Blind Patriots
"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.”
- Mark Twain.
Musing about patriotism: five historic quotes.
"My country, right or wrong." These words were part of a toast Stephen Decatur gave in 1816. Dubbed “the Conqueror of the Barbary Pirates,” Decatur was in many ways the founding father of the U.S. Navy,
Context: What Decatur actually said was, "Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong!” Not as snappy as the oft-repeated five words, to be sure. But Decatur did express the hope that the country would strive to be in the right; and he limited his reach to foreign affairs.
“Partisan politics stops at the water’s edge.” Arthur Vandenberg, a Republican senator from Michigan, who reframed Decatur’s theme after World War II.
Context: Vandenberg had been an isolationist until Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, when he became a committed internationalist. He supported a bipartisan approach to foreign affairs during Harry Trumans presidency, forcefully backing NATO, the Marshall Plan, and the United Nations. While Americans could have political disagreements at home, he believed, we must present a united front to the world. I grew up with that idea, which led me to enlist in the army when the country was entering a war I opposed and against which I protested when my term was up. On May 4, 1970 I was stationed at NATO Headquarters when members of the Ohio National Guard opened fire on anti-war protestors at Kent State University, killing four and wounding nine others. Determining the water’s edge suddenly became very complicated.
“My country, right or wrong; if right to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.” Carl Schurz, another Republican senator, amended Decatur’s declaration on the Senate floor in 1872.
Context: Schurz was an immigrant who had fled from Prussia after the European revolutions of 1848. In his adopted homeland he became an attorney and newspaper editor, Civil War general, early member of the Republican Patery, and the country’s first German-American U.S. Senator. As with so many immigrants, Schurz believed strongly in the possibilities of his new country; as a reformer he sought to correct what he perceived as its faults.
‘Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.’ Samuel Johnson, an 18th-century British writer called “arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history.”
Context: His biographer, James Boswell, expanded on Johnson’s words: “Patriotism having become one of our topicks, Boswell wrote, “Johnson suddenly uttered, in a strong determined tone, an apothegm, at which many will start: ‘Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.’ But let it be considered that he did not mean a real and generous love of our country, but that pretended patriotism which so many, in all ages and countries, have made a cloak for self-interest.” It was instructive to read these words as Donald Trump addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
"We have come to a point where it is loyalty to resist, and treason to submit," Carl Schurz.
Context: And so we return to Schurz in a speech he gave on March 23, 1859, just a year before the start of the Civil War. As masked and armed ICE members put their “boots on the ground” in American cities – and now in my own state of Maine – and as the president demands the annexation of Greenland, Carl Schurz’s words resonate. Donald Trump speaks for himself, not for me. True patriotism demands more than blind allegiance. It calls Americans to come together in a crisis. We are in a crisis now.