Collegiate Times

What is a patriot? Moreover, what is patriotism and why should we care? Is it patriotic to love your country? What exactly is meant by "our country?" Is it the physical lands that are separated by our national boundaries, the mountains and rivers, the fields and forests? Who might then be the patriots? The workers who till the land, the conservationists who seek to preserve and protect it?

Surely patriotism is a more contestable notion than love for the physical land one occupies. Still, what is our country? When we say America, do we mean the formal structures of government? The people now sitting in office? The Constitution and the Declaration of Independence? Or is it something grander, perhaps the ideals on which this nation was founded and which continue to inspire it today?

Can patriotism be limited to love for the current officeholders in the federal government? But if it is our patriotic duty to love whoever is now in office, why even hold elections? Certainly most will agree that even a restrained conception of democracy necessitates some level of critical thinking and mass participation. The Bill of Rights enshrines the right to petition the government for grievances and to assemble free from government interference. The very purpose of elections, as limited a form of participation as they may be, is for citizens to express their preferences regarding those now holding office and prospective candidates for those offices.

Maybe patriotism implies a love for the form our federalist system of government has taken. However, we know how mutable its form has been. From women's suffrage to the direct election of U.S. Senators our system of governance has taken on a number of significant changes. The creation and expansion of government ministries and the increasing power of the executive continue to alter the shape and form of our government. No doubt any conservative will gladly tell you what he/she thinks of the limited social programs developed by the federal government since the New Deal.

So is patriotism something broader and more abstract? Maybe love for representative democracy is a better term. And yet still it doesn't seem to fit the bill. The United States of the 18th and 19th centuries cannot seriously be considered a representative democracy. It wasn't until Andrew Jackson was president that all white men were even able to vote. Women were not granted the right to vote until after World War 1. Only then can we begin to talk of a "representative democracy" and it still isn't a meaningful term until the mass movements of the 50s and 60s forced Congress to pass the civil rights and voting rights acts in 1964 and 1965.

The very elements we hold as necessary for a democracy (free elections, universal suffrage, free speech, etc.) didn't even exist in the United States until about 30 years ago.

So what, then, is to be considered patriotic? Is it a firm belief in the values expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution? This seems a plausible definition of patriotism but it may lead us down some unexpected paths.

After all, when the U.S. Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts shortly after our republic was founded, who were the patriots? The federal government or the citizens who criticized it? If the Constitution is our patriotism benchmark, it's wording is quite clear: Congress shall make no law