What does 'patriotism' mean?

I received a fund-raising letter that started with “Dear Fellow Patriot.”

That salutation set off alarm bells in my head that have recently returned after being silent for several decades. My first real encounter with a phrase like that happened when I was a sophomore in high school in Northern Virginia. I was walking to the bus when a guy, who was too old to be a student, handed me a flyer from the John Birch Society which decried the “Jewish-Capitalist-Communist conspiracy to destroy the United States. I always wondered about that phrase. I know the anti-Semites blame Jews for both Communism and the evils of Capitalism, but linking the two?

Anyway, this pamphlet accused Jews of manipulating African-Americans (they used another term) to destroy white America.

I was familiar with racism, anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism, anti-Irish and anti-Southern and Eastern European, and anti-Hispanic and anti-Asian. This was the mid-1960s and all those prejudices were in full force.

The Ku Klux Klan was active and well organized with a goal of protecting white America from these evil forces led by the Jews.

They both claimed to be “patriots” and wrapped themselves in the American flag. That made me suspicious of anyone running around claiming to be a “patriot.” It certainly was not patriotism as I understood, and still understand, the word to mean.

Two weeks after I graduated from high school, I took an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

That oath, to me, doesn’t have an expiration date. What it does have is a requirement to support a system of government based on free elections and the peaceful transfer of power.

What it doesn’t mean is supporting the violent overthrow of the government advocated by a candidate who refuses to accept the results of an election and his supporters.

Donald Trump campaigns under the banner of “Make America Great Again.”

My question is: When was this country not great? We have our problems, but we have been on a steady march to better. Change has come too slowly but it has come, and progress is still being made—which frightens some people. Change can be unsettling, especially if a person thinks they will lose something.

I suspect that Trump, and his moto, appeal to those people who fear the loss of “white privilege.” During slavery, poor Southern whites were sold on the belief that while they may be poor, at least they are not black. I suspect at least some of their descendants hold onto that belief.

Then along came Barack Obama. He was the first president who was not a white. He didn’t look like any of the others. And coupled with studies and reports predicting that America would become a nation of “majority minorities,” these folks were terrified of losing their “white privilege,” a privilege was used to keep them down, not elevate them, by giving others to focus their discontent on while keeping them from actually dealing with the problems they face.

How else do you explain people supporting Trump who gave massive tax breaks to the rich and corporations while throwing crumbs to the middle and working classes.

I suspect “Make America Great Again” means “Preserve White Privilege.” It’s Trump’s dog whistle to those folks who fear change, who haven’t clued in to the fact that there is just one race: the human race.

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