Grand Old Flag

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On subsequent visits, he never asked me about the flag. I thought at the time that he, a Navy veteran of World War II and a staunch Republican, was just goading his goofy leftist son-in-law and former Air Force sergeant—daring me to shed my dissident pretenses and get with the program. I never did, but I sometimes catch myself wondering what I—and other progressive-minded folks—give up by refusing to play the patriot game.

Politically, the price is pretty obvious: Conservatives tar and feather us as enemies of the state and dismiss our opinions as the poisonous rants of traitors. Meanwhile, the president pops in at a flag factory for a photo op and his approval ratings jump a half dozen points.

We all know that patriotism runs a lot deeper than flying the flag on the Fourth of July or mumbling our way through the "Star Spangled Banner" at a football game. It is more often defined these days by blind political conformity, an almost pathological readiness to make war, and a shocking betrayal of civil liberties. But what alternative do progressives offer? How do we seize the patriotic high ground?

THE EASY ANSWER, of course, is to lighten up, embrace the symbols of national pride with the same shallowness as our political leaders, and get back to the real work of social change. Maybe we’ll fool enough people enough of the time to regain our political footing and make a point or two about the minor flaws of our otherwise fabulously great nation. Failing that, we might want to drill down to that core of patriotic ambivalence inside each of us and identify the things we really do love about this country and find ways to celebrate them.

To hear longtime left activists Peter Dreier and Dick Flacks tell it, we might start by remembering our history. Writing in The Nation (June 3, 2002), Dreier and Flacks remind us that many of our nation’s most treasured patriotic symbols were created and promoted by left-leaning Americans hungry for social change.

Take those inspiring lines inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, "Give me your tired, your poor / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." They were penned by poet Emma Lazarus, a supporter of Henry George’s "socialistic" single-tax program. Or check out the origins of "America the Beautiful." The lyrics were written in 1893 by poet Katharine Lee Bates, an anti-imperialist university professor active in Boston progressive reform movements. Even that perennial political football the Pledge of Allegiance has progressive roots. It was authored in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, a prominent Christian socialist at the time who, according to Dreier and Flacks, hoped that the pledge would "promote a moral vision to counter the individualism embodied in capitalism and expressed in the climate of the Gilded Age." (Remember, "under God" was added by Congress in 1954 during the Red Scare.)

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