Culture Watch

How to Become a Patriot in Three Easy Lessons

by Matthew Dennis

Mr. Dennis is an associate professor of history at the University of Oregon and is the author of Cultivating a Landscape of Peace: Iroquois-European Encounters in Seventeenth-Century America and the forthcoming Red, White, and Blue Letter Days: Identity, History, and the American Calendar.

On October 26, President George W. Bush signed into law an anti-terrorism bill, dubbed by Congress"The U.S.A. Patriot Act of 2001." Why such a name? What is"patriotic" about it? What is American patriotism, anyway? What does it mean to be a patriot?

The term, patriot -- one who unselfishly promotes the well-being of his country -- was rare in the English language before 1680. At the time it was used especially to designate one who supported the rights of his country against the king or his court. A patriot was thus often a dissenter, one who thought critically and expressed opposition to government, not necessarily one who offered uncritical devotion.

By the early 18th century, patriot had become an ironic, even derisive label; it had been cheapened by those whose claims of patriotism were disputed or ridiculed. In fact, it came to mean its opposite -- patrioteer, a false patriot. According to Dr. Johnson, a"patriot" was"a facetious disturber of the government," or worse, patriotism was"the last refuge of a scoundrel." Meanwhile across the Atlantic, self-styled patriots emerged in America to challenge King George III in an armed rebellion, which began at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, a day still marked annually as a legal holiday ("Patriots’ Day") in Massachusetts and Maine. Significantly, these revolutionary patriots -- founding fathers, the paters at the root of the word, patriot -- were rebels, men (and women) who refused to be rubber stamps as they rejected initiatives like the hated Stamp Act.

Patriotism -- the word and the practice -- is not timeless and self-evident; it is historically specific, varied, and contested. And many of its symbols are surprisingly new. Memorial Day dates from the mid-1860s, the Pledge of Allegiance was not written until 1891, and its words did not include"under God" until 1954. There was no Flag Day until 1916."The Star-Spangled Banner" was not the official national anthem until 1931 (after some thirty-five bills to make it so had failed in Congress between 1910 and 1930), and although it was played during the seventh-inning stretch of a game in the 1918 World Series, it did not become a fixture at sporting events until World War II. No federal law proscribed"flag desecration" until 1968. Patriotism can express itself conspicuously through red-white-and-blue rites and symbols, but it can also assume subtler, more understated tones. The ephemera of patriotism is not the thing itself.

All patriots love their countries, and though that love may be expressed in diverse ways, if genuine, such devotion emanates from a profound understanding of and respect for its principles -- in the United States, liberty, equality, and justice -- and a sincere regard for fellow citizens. American history suggests that patriotism resides both in acts of affirmation and opposition. Patriots have questioned and debated as a critical means of realizing and defending American democracy.

The Senate vote on the"U.S.A. Patriot Act" was 98-1, with Russell D. Feingold (D-Wisc.) casting the only dissenting vote. Those ninety-eight yeas were no more (or less) patriotic than the lone nay. But the name assigned to the legislation is surely a patrioteering misnomer. It is playing politics at a moment when the country is attempting to unite. By expropriating the title"patriot," it implies that all who question it are less than patriotic; a vote against the bill is somehow a vote against patriotism. The term and the practice of patriotism will remain suspect as long as such superficial flourishes are used to forestall thoughtful debate or to undermine the legitimacy of reasonable objections to proposals and policies that affect the future of the United States and the world.

We can look to the past and learn how Americans have expressed and acted on their patriotic feelings, yet there we will discover that some of the bravest, most patriotic acts in American history were demeaned at the time as disloyal or un-American (consider the modern civil rights movement). And we might conclude that some acts called patriotic in the past no longer strike us that way (Japanese-American internment during World War II, for example). Who can say at this point, amid the confusion of recent events, what the right course for the United States might be? Patriotism is the easy part -- but love of country alone offers few answers. Americans will continue to express that devotion, not only through affirmation of their president and other leaders, but through critical engagement and debate in the defense of their country. Such is their patriotic duty.