Patriotism, Nationalism and a Letter from Bobby Kennedy

There's a meme going around on social media.  It's called Patriotism vs. Nationalism.  Sounds like a distinction work making, doesn't it?  Yet, I was offended when I first watched it. 

Why? Well, let me start by focusing on the “vs.” or versus in the title.  The post was initially promoted by a group with a Facebook page called America Versus.  Should every topic worth discussing start by positioning it as oppositional?

In Patriotism vs. Nationalism, the 3-minute video correctly defines the difference between the terms and supports its POV with snippets from liberal icons including President Obama, Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Martin Luther King, Jr., all of whom promote the idea that dissent is patriotic.  There are no quotes or video snippets supporting an alternative POV.  There is simply the implication that those who disagree are less intelligent than those who do.

Now, to be clear, I agree with the distinction being made. So, why am I offended?  Because we are better than this.  This video is intended to further polarize us.  If you are liberal, it feeds your confirmation bias.  If its producers had wanted to get conservatives to think about or reconsider their view, they might have used quotes from the founders.  For example, here’s what Thomas Jefferson said on the subject:

"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then."

The person who posted the video is someone I consider to be a friend despite our political differences.  (Yes, that’s possible.)  I didn’t respond to his post.  I simply sent him a video that approaches our differences differently: an 8-minute video from PBS discussing the origins of our political beliefs.  If you take the time to watch it, you’ll recognize friends and neighbors – people whose company you enjoy.  To me, it offers us the space to consider how people develop different values and the perspective not to hate those with whom we may disagree.  At some level, it creates empathy. 

I would rather start any political discussion there, not with the word versus in the headline. 

Many pundits date the beginning of the culture war to the 60’s.  Barry Goldwater ran for president from the extreme right wing and was defeated by the liberal LBJ.  The Supreme Court gave us Miranda Rights and banned prayer in school.  The war in Vietnam divided the country.  African Americans protested Jim Crow laws in the Deep South.  The country was divided then as it is now.

In its midst, I received a letter from Bobby Kennedy.  It’s dated May 29, 1967, a year and a few days before he was gunned down in Los Angeles.  It’s framed and hangs on the wall above my desk.  Bobby Kennedy ran for president in 1968 from the liberal left.  Today, I would not agree with his politics or policy prescriptions.  Yet, his letter hangs over my desk because none of that mattered then nor does it matter now.  He simply expressed that he knew that my “family must be very proud” that the US Navy had offered me a scholarship and that he “would like to join with … friends and family in offering … congratulations.”

I am sure he wrote thousands of those letters while serving as New York’s representative in the U.S. Senate.  I am sure that every member of Congress has long sent similar letters.  Yet, it’s special to me because it’s a touchstone.  Yes, I know that nostalgia improves our memories of times gone by.  However, I remember the 60’s as a time when, divided as we might have been, we were able to move forward as a nation.  Social media didn’t exist and mass media wasn’t engaged in trying to divide us.

The problem I have with the versus crowd is not what they have to say or what they believe.  It’s the laziness of their approach.  It’s this or that.   If this is good, that must be bad.  If you don’t believe this, you must believe that.  If this is good and that is bad, you must be bad.  People are complex and life is complicated.  The world isn’t divided into binary choices of good and evil.

WHO WILL LEAD?

Depolarization, Connections and My Numerous Sins

As author of The Reluctant CEO, I became a reluctant guest on our area’s most influential radio talk show, Connections hosted by Evan Dawson, presented by our local NPR affiliate WXXI.  Why was I reluctant?  Well, the topic was climate change and I knew I would be out of my depth both on the science and on public policy. Perhaps, I wondered aloud, we could talk about climate change in the context of political polarization.  He thought that a terrific idea.  So, I accepted his invitation. 

He also promised not to throw me into the deep end of the pool without a life preserver, a promise he lived up to.  He proved, along with his producer Megan Mack, to be a most gracious host.  I can’t recall ever feeling so comfortable in front of the media. (If you missed it, you can listen to the podcast by clicking here.)

Dawson cast me as some sort of anomalous creature, one who educates himself and changes his point of view if the evidence points in a direction different from the path on which I start – a thinking person interested more in principle than polarizing politics and behaving heroically in the face of a constant barrage of vitriol.

“Who are you?” he asked laughingly, both cracking me up and appealing to my ego. 

After the buzz wore off, I began to think about what a heinous hypocrite I am.  After all, just last year, I found myself in a contentious social media melee with someone promoting socialism as a preferred economic system (a conversation I can’t believe we’re having in the most prosperous nation on Earth).  I may have lost a friend over that.  At a dinner party a few years ago, my debating effectiveness caused one of the guests to get up and walk out.  He accepted my apology but things haven’t been the same since.

Truth is: it has been a difficult journey to this imperfect place at which I behave imperfectly.  It is especially difficult in an era like this one, where what is true in one moment may become untrue, or at least irrelevant, in the next.

My journey started eight years ago when I swore in writing that I would no longer watch cable news (STOP WATCHING CABLE NEWS NOW!).  It’s an oath to which I have been faithful with the few exceptions where a video is worth a million words – earthquakes, tsunamis, forest fires, etc.

I used the time saved (about an hour and a half per day) to read more.  As a result, I have become more conservative.  (Turn off mainstream TV media and it may happen to you.)  My reading has helped me to formulate opinions outside the mainstream.  This blog began to hit its stride a few months after I stopped watching cable news when I wrote about a Gainesville, FL pastor threatening to burn a Koran (Is That What Jesus Would Do?  Really?).  There were other high points as when I wrote about my son’s hopes that the nation would legalize gay marriage (It’s Not Religion… It’s Not Politics…It’s Personal).  Or, my post expressing great hope for society (Hope, Love, Forgiveness… Can society achieve it?).  I began with a quote from Reinhold Niebuhr, “Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime, therefore we must be saved by hope…” and ended by expressing my “hope that civil society will prevail in accordance with humanist tradition.”

But, there were low points as well.  Listening to Connections in late 2015, my blood was boiling over the assertion that there was only one person, the current resident of the White House, that would elicit the response, “I would vote for anyone else if __________ is nominated.”  I would fill in the blank with Bernie Sanders and so I wrote, “Let’s Understand Just What Socialism Means to Us” in which I described Sanders supporters as “either ignorant or stupid.”  I have since met many Sanders supporters who are neither; but that’s not what turned me around. 

It was David Blankenhorn who wrote an article in The American Interest from which I quoted liberally in “Lessons in Depolarization:  Let’s Start Now!” Blankenhorn has since started an organization called “Better Angels,” taking the term from Lincoln’s first inaugural.   The organization has recently had its first convention attended by an equal number of “Red” and “Blue” delegates.  They have asked for volunteers to host red/blue events.  I have volunteered to host one if they ever make it to Rochester. 

I haven’t forgotten my sins of the past.  I am simply trying to make amends.

WHO WILL LEAD?