霉帝的爱国者
2023-07-05 06:56阅读：
In a polarized US, how to define a patriot increasingly
depends on who's being asked
BY GARY FIELDS, MARGERY BECK AND REBECCA BOONE
Millions of Americans will attend parades, fireworks and other
Independence Day events on Tuesday, celebrating the courage of the
nation’s 18th century patriots who fought for independence from
Great Britain and what they considered an unjust government. Those
events also will honor the military and those who sacrificed in
other conflicts that helped preserve the nation’s freedom over its
247-year history.
That is only one version of a “patriot.” Today, the word and its
variants have morphed beyond the original meaning. It has become
infused in political rhetoric and school curriculums, with varying
def
initions, while being appropriated by white nationalist groups.
Trying to define what a patriot is depends on who is being
asked.
THE ORIGINAL PATRIOTS
While the word’s origins come from ancient Greece, its basic
meaning in American history is someone who loves his or her
country.
The original patriots come from the American Revolution, most often
associated with figures such as Sam Adams and Benjamin Franklin.
But enslaved people who advocated for abolition and members of
native communities trying to recover or retain their sovereignty
also saw themselves as patriots, said Nathaniel Sheidley, president
and CEO of Revolutionary Spaces in Boston. The group runs the Old
State House and Old South Meeting House, which played central roles
in the revolution.
“They took part in the American Revolution. There were working
people advocating for their voices to be heard in the political
process,” Sheidley said.
The hallmark of patriotism then, he said, was “a sense of
self-sacrifice, of caring more about one’s neighbors and fellow
community members than one’s self.”
PATRIOTISM HAS HAD MORE THAN ONE MEANING
In some ways, the view of patriotism has always been on parallel
tracks with civic and ethnic nationalism, historians say.
“Patriotism really depends on which American is describing himself
as patriotic and what version or vision of the country they hold
dear,” said Matthew Delmont, a historian at Dartmouth.
Opposition to government and dissent have been common features of
how patriotism has been defined, he said. He cited the example of
Black military members who fought in World War II and advocated for
civil rights when they returned. They also saw themselves as
patriots.
“Part of patriotism for them meant not just winning the war, but
then coming home and trying to change America, trying to continue
to fight for civil rights and to have actual freedom and democracy
here in the United States,” Delmont said.
For many white Americans who see themselves as patriotic, “They’re
thinking of other white Americans as the true definition of
Americans,” Delmont said.
HOW THE DEFINITION HAS EVOLVED
Far-right and extremist groups have branded themselves with
American motifs and the term “patriot” since at least the early
20th century, when the second Ku Klux Klan became known for the
slogan “100% Americanism,” said Mark Pitcavage, senior research
fellow at the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism.
By the 1990s, so many antigovernment and militia groups were using
the term to describe themselves that watchdog groups referred to it
as the “ Patriot movement.”
That extremist wave, which included Oklahoma City bomber Timothy
McVeigh, faded in the late 1990s and early 2000s. But many such
groups resurfaced when Barack Obama became president, according to
the Southern Poverty Law Center, which closely tracked the
movement.
Since then, many right-wing groups have called themselves
“patriots” as they’ve fought election processes, LGBTQ+ rights,
vaccines, immigration, diversity programs in schools and more.
Former President Donald Trump frequently refers to his supporters
as “patriots.”
HOW WHITE NATIONALIST GROUPS USE IT
The term works as a branding tool because many Americans have a
positive association with “patriot,” which hearkens back to the
Revolutionary War soldiers who beat the odds to found the country,
said Kurt Braddock, an American University professor and researcher
at the Polarization and Extremism Research & Innovation
Lab.
One example is the white supremacist militia group Patriot Front,
which researchers say uses patriotism as a sort of camouflage to
hide racist and bigoted values. Some white nationalist groups may
genuinely view themselves as pushing back against tyranny — even if
in reality they are “very selective” about what parts of the
Constitution they want to defend, Braddock said.
Gaines Foster, a historian at Louisiana State University, said
patriotism at one point was seen as a civic nationalism that held
the belief “that you’re an American because you believe in
democracy, you believe in equality, you believe in opportunity. In
other words, you believe certain things about the way the
government works, and that’s a very inclusive vision.”
He said the violent Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol was
the most dramatic example of how the view of patriotism has shifted
in recent years, saying “people began to lean less toward a
commitment to democracy and more to the notion in the Declaration
of Independence that there is a ‘right of revolt,’ and that becomes
patriotism.”
HOW PATRIOTISM GETS LINKED TO CONSPIRACY THEORIES
Bob Evnen has been active in Nebraska Republican politics for
nearly 50 years and was instrumental a decade ago in enacting a
requirement for the Pledge of Allegiance to be recited in schools.
The measure doesn’t force students to participate, but does require
schools to set aside time each class day for the pledge to be
recited.
He pushed for the pledge policy to be included in the state’s
social studies curriculum standards, despite criticism from some
lawmakers and civil rights organizations who labeled it “forced
patriotism.”
The intent, he said, is “to teach our children to become young
patriots who have an intellectual understanding of the genius of
this country and who feel an emotional connection to it.”
“Somewhere along the line, we lost that — to our detriment, I
believe,” Evnen said.
Now Evnen is Nebraska’s secretary of state overseeing elections and
he is sometimes the target of election conspiracy theorists —
usually fellow Republicans. They have made unfounded accusations of
election rigging across the country and often question his
patriotism for disagreeing.
Evnen finds those accusations maddening. To him, patriotism is
unifying around “the idea of liberty and freedom and of
self-governance.” He said today’s national debate on what
constitutes patriotism flies in the face of reason.
“They’re now just personal attacks in an effort to shut down
debate,” he said. “Anyone who strays from orthodoxy is labeled
unpatriotic.”
PATRIOTISM IS A HOT BUTTON IN SCHOOLS
In Idaho, Gov. Brad Little and Superintendent of Public Instruction
Debbie Critchfield, both Republicans, announced in June that the
state had purchased a new “patriotic” supplemental history
curriculum that would be made available, free, to all public
schools.
“It’s more important than ever that Idaho children learn the facts
about American history from a patriotic standpoint,” Little wrote
on Facebook. He said the lessons would help to “truly transform our
students here in Idaho.”
Little’s office referred questions about the supplement to the
state’s education department.
“The Story of America” curriculum was developed by conservative
author and former Reagan-era education secretary Bill Bennett. In a
2021 press release, Bennett said the curriculum was needed because
“an anti-American ideology that radically misrepresents U.S.
history has infiltrated our education system and misled our
kids.”
It’s difficult to compare the supplemental curriculum against the
lessons that Idaho schools currently use because each district
selects its own texts and lesson plans.
The new curriculum emphasizes that talking about American history
and teaching the subject should be done with the intent to
“cultivate a respect and love of your country,” Critchfield
said.
“It’s not to change history, but to honor the history we had,” she
said.
Democratic state Rep. Chris Mathias, a member of the House
education committee, hasn’t seen the supplemental curriculum yet,
but said history lessons should teach the good and the bad, and
discuss — without shaming — the uncomfortable aspects of
history.
Saying one curriculum is “patriotic” suggests that others currently
in use are not, he said.
“I would really like to know if that’s true,” said Mathias, who
previously served in the U.S. Coast Guard. “As a military veteran,
I think a lot of people disagree on what it means to be devoted to
America. I think a lot of people think that blind devotion is the
same thing as patriotism. I don’t.”
