By Stan Lisle
If we start with agreement that “patriotism” means love of country, then there are almost no Patriots among us. Neither the Left nor the Right loves the country they live in. They love the idea of the country they want to live in.
But, of course, we can’t start with agreement on that definition of “patriotism”. The Left and the Right, almost by definition, disagree on everything. The only thing we seem to agree on is that there is now existential threat. However, we can’t agree upon whether that threat is to our way of living, our environment, our democracy, or our liberties. We do, however, agree that the cause of the threat is the other side.
I’m hearing a chorus from the Right singing that they love their country. It’s the best in the world. Yet they want to drastically change it. They want to start mass deportations. They want to weaken the separation of church and state. They want to take away a woman’s right to decide on her own health issues. They want to dramatically change the way we educate our children, and fund that education.
At least in my lifetime, the Right has usually been more vocal about their patriotism than the Left. They wear it like a tribal symbol. The Left finds that a bit uncool. But we cheer for our team at the Olympics. We get pissed at Putin for challenging us. We want the Chinese to stop stealing our tech. We secretly gloat about winning 2 world wars. And still, we want to fundamentally change things. We want to revamp the way we deliver health care; we want to restructure the supreme court, the US Senate and our elections; we want to re-write our history books; we want to trim even more of capitalism’s rough edges.
So, who loves the country we live in? Who loves this stew of races, of religions, of sexual identities, of political beliefs, of varying faith in science, of worldviews, of ethnic backgrounds, of languages, of political beliefs? Who loves our anger and hatred with each other? Who is an American Patriot?
Almost none of us. We don’t love our country; we love our Tribe: our Red Tribe, or our Blue Tribe. We’re not American Patriots, we’re Red Patriots or Blue Patriots.
It’s easy to blame Fox News and MSNBC for this tribalism, but they are only giving their audience what the audience wants. When Laura Ingraham reports on “the Biden Crime Family”, or when Nicolle Wallace repeats her mantric Trump introduction (“Once-indicted, twice-impeached, forever disgraced”), they are feeding a fire that already exists.
Roger Ailes understood that news was entertainment, and that the better entertained his audience is, the better his ratings and revenues. For decades prior to the 1996 birth of Ailes and Murdock’s Fair and Balanced Fox News, the Right had been complaining about the liberal bias of the media. Ailes and Murdoch shared conservative values, but they also shared a long honed professional skill at managing media profitably. Had they not believed that they could make money catering the news to the politically conservative segment of the country, Fox News would not be what Fox News is. Profits, not ideology was the primary driver.
Ailes also famously understood that an angry audience watched his shows longer and more frequently, so he fueled their anger. And the ratings exploded. The rest of the media world had to react, and they did. MSNBC emerged to capture the left segment of the media market, and also focused their coverage on issues that would anger their viewers.
We enjoy being angry. We like having an enemy. We want to feel self-righteous. We want our adrenaline to flow and our emotions to peak. We want the dopamine release that happens when we get angry. We want to have secret conversations with other Tribe members where we demonstrate and reenforce each other’s Tribal Patriotism. We like the daily episodes of the serial drama that the news has become.
We are polarized because we enjoy being polarized.
Is there anything wrong with that? What does all this fun cost us? Is patriotism more than the fondness of an ass for his stall?
Well, historically it has been. It’s arguably why our two-party governing system used to be able to compromise and function. It’s an important reason why we accept being governed. It’s why our grandfathers, fathers and some of us fought in wars to defend our freedoms. It creates the national unity that allows us to pull together rather than pull apart.
Do you believe in democracy? If so, you believe in compromise. If not, I guess you want an autocracy, a monarchy, a dictatorship, an oligarchy, a theocracy, or one-party rule. You don’t need to compromise in any of those systems; plus, your opinion would never be asked, and has no importance.
Now, if you are always right, please don’t compromise. If God has told you what course to take, please don’t compromise (but you may want to check with him again, because he told some other folks something different). If the other side is evil, please don’t compromise (and unless you are always right, you may be wrong about that).
Maybe we just need to modify our democracy so that those who disagree with us have less significance. We’ll only let men vote. Or only land owners. Or maybe we’ll limit voting to an informed electorate, and I get to decide who’s properly informed.
But what about those existential issues, those issues that are so significant that if the other side gets its way, the world as we know it will end? What about climate change? What about national security? And what about those issues where justice is at stake: economic inequality, racial and social justice? And what about those issues that if the other side gets its way, our freedoms and quality of life will be seriously damaged: immigration, the 2nd Amendment, cultural preservation, religious freedom? We can’t compromise on those issues, can we?
Well, if we don’t compromise, what do we do? Right now, we can’t get anything done, so we complain. Alternatives to complaining exist, but they involve guns, waiting a decade or two for a generation to die, or a miracle trifecta political win (house, senate, and presidency). The trifecta is an awesome win for our side, unless it’s an awesome loss for our side. Maybe compromise is a safer bet.
I am not suggesting in any way that you give up your political beliefs. The answer is not that we all become purple. Wanting change is not unpatriotic. Obstinate conviction that you are right, and refusal to compromise is unpatriotic, undemocratic, and unproductive.
The answer is that we take pride in the fact that we are probably the most successful large multi-cultural, multi-ethnic nation in the world. The answer is that we take pride that our economy is the strongest and most resilient in the world. We take pride in the fact that much of the rest of the world wants to immigrate here and enjoy our standard of living, opportunities and freedoms. We take pride in the beauty of our country. We take pride that for a century, we have been the world’s leader in research and innovation, and that today we stand poised to create and profit from innovations like AI and Quantum Computing that will catapult the world into the future.
The answer is that we accept the fact that with so many of us from so many diverse backgrounds, we can’t be expected to see the world the same way, and yet our democracy works.
The answer is we love our entire country, we appreciate the importance of our democracy, and we compromise.
