On Patriotism

THE BERNHARD PERSPECTIVE

Patriotism is not obedience to those we elect to office, high or low. It is not silence. It is not quiet acceptance of unconscionable power. True patriotism is a noisy, messy, and deeply uncomfortable thing. It is the courage to hold our leaders to the ideals upon which this nation was founded.

The first lesson of American history is that patriotism does not require nor is reflected in a pledge of loyalty to a president, a party, or even a flag. True patriotism is to respect and hold dear what our elected leaders and our military all vow: to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.

The next lesson is that all power belongs to the people. Only we are sovereign. And we must never, ever cede that to an autocrat, an oligarch, a strong man or dictator. There are no kings here.

What the MAGA’s are trying to sell us today is a new kind of patriotism. It is quiet. It is convenient; it suggests that we all just go about our business. It concedes power to the executive, salutes and never asks why. But American patriotism stemming as it did from rebellion against tyranny, is loud. It is demanding. It holds the Constitution in one hand and a protest sign as a symbolic sword in the other.

In the context of what is happening today under the increasingly autocratic rule of Donald T****, I always harken back to the words spoken by Mario Savio during the UC Berkeley Free Speech Protests in 1964 as he stood atop a police car surrounded and impounded by hundreds of righteously angry students. This is how patriots respond:

“There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part. You can’t even passively take part. And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who own it, to the people who run it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all.”

True patriotism cannot abide quiet acquiescence. Donald T**** and his MAGA’s cannot ignore the truth of our nation’s violent birth nor the uprising of protest against his lust for tyrannical power. And they cannot ignore us.

\When you look back on our country’s history, it would seem that perhaps the most important lesson America must remember is encapsulated in these words from Thomas Jefferson: ”The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

No. Freedom isn’t free. And in the struggle for freedom there is always an element of risk. True patriots must always accept that risk. Because in the final analysis, it is better to live with one leg than to spend your life on your knees.

Neither Donald T**** nor his MAGA’s nor his private army nor any soldiers on the streets can silence our voices. We will not be quiet. We will not go away. We will never forget that an American’s first loyalty is to the Constitution and first love is freedom.

Questioning is our right. Rebellion is in our blood.

Resistance is our duty.