Leftists Undermine Right-Wingers’ Monopoly on Patriotism

The Fourth of July is behind us, the Gulf War celebrations are winding down and the hoopla of presidential politics has yet to build steam. What better time to pause and consider the meaning of patriotism?

The Nation invited every left-leaning thinker--from the lead singer of 10,000 Maniacs to Jesse Jackson--to do just that, and the result is a 100-voice cacophony on the subject, compiled in the magazine’s 125th-anniversary issue (July 15-22).

James Weinstein, editor of In These Times, perhaps best reflects the average reader’s view of such an undertaking:

“Why would The Nation bother to do a special issue on patriotism? Dumb leftist (contributors) will denounce the idea as a sham--the last refuge of scoundrels and all that. Smart leftists will opine that we are the only real patriots, since we represent the true best hope for the nation. It’s all so predictable.”

Surprisingly, though, the discussion is varied and compelling. The essays run the gamut from pedantic to deeply personal. Although the package would be more engaging if The Nation had invited a few right-wing types to contribute, there probably is enough ideological diversity here to both comfort and infuriate readers, regardless of their political beliefs.

A close reading reveals a consensus of what the left believes true patriotism is not: jingoism, nationalism, consumerism. It also reveals a few isms that many on the left place above the patriot kind--most notably, internationalism, environmentalism and humanitarianism.

But the best essays step quickly away from isms and explore underlying issues. The Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations people would be well advised to start poring over the compilation, as would Democratic presidential candidates, if there is such a thing these days. Some contributors maintain their leftist sneers for the term. “Patriotism?” Mike Davis of the New Left Review writes, “. . . headless charred corpses in the Iraqi desert, the smile on Ollie North’s face.”

Others condescendingly rise above their disdain to, as one contributor sniffs, “admit to a residual patriotism.”

But the discussion is most invigorating in the essays that argue (predictably, but so what?) that the right doesn’t deserve an exclusive claim to patriotism and that the left is diminished by its contempt for the term.

As constitutional lawyer Floyd Abrams puts it: “What the left criticizes about America is often worth criticizing. (But) its unwillingness to celebrate what we offer the world at our best--and to call it patriotism--is not to its intellectual or moral credit.”

Here is a brief sampling from the 135 pages of brilliance and blather.

WILLIAM SLOANE COFFIN, minister: “If uncritical lovers of their country are the most dangerous of patriots, loveless critics are hardly the best. If you love the good you have to hate evil, else you’re sentimental; but if you hate evil more than you love the good, you’re a good hater. Surely the best patriots are those who carry on not a grudge but a lover’s quarrel with their country.”

M. G. LORD, cartoonist and columnist: “To me, the most vital symbols of what makes America great are those Sunday morning television shows on which people with opposing views try to outshout one another. Forget the flag, forget the Statue of Liberty--I’d sacrifice my life to preserve ‘The McLaughlin Group.’ ”

MARY McGRORY, columnist: “I will match my love of country with that of any of those hearties in the Administration who are sending Americans to war having decided not to serve in one themselves. I refer to the Secretary of Defense and the Vice President particularly.”

DAVID HALBERSTAM, author: “We have always taken patriotism seriously in our family and we have always thought it, not unlike religion, a relatively private thing. . . . While (after the Persian Gulf War) I was pleased to see the military achieve a proper and healthy respect from the society at large, I was also made uneasy by the Super Bowl quality of cheering by the general populace, cheering as they did the sacrifices of other people’s children--I had a sense of a kind of no-fault patriotism at work in the land.”

ISHMAEL REED, novelist: “The duty of the true patriot, a citizen of the world, is to expose nationalism as the village idiot of the Global Village.”

SHELDON S. WOLIN, author: “The left has trouble with patriotism not because it is the party of humanity but because it is, nationally and internationally, the party of losers. . . . It is afflicted with a fashionable skepticism that sees the elements of patriotism--loyalty, sharing, commitment to a particular society--as threats to what many leftists have come to prize most, their special difference, so much so that each difference--black, Asian, Latino, feminist, gay, lesbian, etc.--needs its own special ‘discourse’ to (ex)communicate. . . . Democracy can be patriotic, but only on condition that the first loyalty is to it.”

NAOMI WEISSTEIN, professor: “Today’s patriotism seems to be the patriarchal justification for legally sanctioned murder, and, as a feminist, I cannot envision a left-wing patriotism that overcomes this.”

LESLIE DUNBAR, former director of Field Foundation: “At 70 (which I am) one holds on to what one can of old loves, and patriotism was one of them. . . . The nation has not yet overcome the terrible legacy of its one piece of beginning bad luck: slavery. Nor, thanks be, has it overcome--though governments off and on have tried--one piece of its good luck, the tradition of legitimacy of dissent and dissenters. That tradition has been our saving grace, and if it matters to others to call my love of it patriotism, I’ll not object.”

MOLLY IVINS, columnist: “I believe patriotism is best expressed in our works, not our parades.”

REQUIRED READING

At its worst, patriotism is a sense of national superiority that reflects a contempt for other countries and cultures. Such contempt may be seen clearly in the phenomenon of international toxic dumping. Most countries have banned imports of dangerous toxic wastes, the July/August E magazine reports, but poor countries are easy suckers for a toxic dumper flashing fistfuls of cash.

“The only real solution,” says a Greenpeace spokesman, “is to reduce waste at its source. . . . “

NEW ON NEWSSTANDS

Tricycle--The Buddhist Review arrives this fall with an eclectic table of contents reflecting the impressive range of contemporary Buddhist thought. The premiere issue features such likely offerings as an excerpt from poet Gary Snyder’s writings on meditation and such unlikely fare as an investigation of “cross-species compassion” and an analysis of the so-called “hot hand” phenomenon in sports.

The highlight of the first issue is a match made in nirvana: an interview of Tibet’s Dalai Lama by New York’s master monologuist, Spalding Gray.

Gray, making the rounds with his epic “Monster in a Box” soliloquy, questions the Nobel laureate with a perfect blend of respect and humor and in the process learns that the Dalai Lama meditates in the middle of his hotel beds, suffers from jet lag and used to have a fear of flying.

The Dalai Lama also struggles with his sexual impulses, driving off thoughts of the bikini-clad women around hotel swimming pools, for instance, with “analytical meditation” on the transitory nature of the flesh.

(Quarterly, $20 a year, Subscription Dept., TRI Box 3000, Denville, N.J. 07834 or 800-221-3148).