The New Patriotism

by Richard Stengel from Time, Thursday, Jun. 26, 2008

Patriotism has always been the most abstract of American virtues--which may be why we fight so ferociously over the symbols that help us define it. Too often those symbols--flags, anthems, slogans--which are meant to unite us, end up dividing us.

To many people, the meaning of patriotism is simple: love of country. But love of a country that is dedicated to a proposition, not a king or a religion--a nation that is based on ideas, not blood--has always created a different kind of citizen. American patriotism expresses itself most truly in actions, not words. Our patriotism shapes our responsibilities as citizens, how we navigate in the world and, ultimately, what it means to be an American.

There is nothing more important than those ideals, and we are in the midst of a historic presidential race that will help redefine them for the 21st century. There have always been twin strains of patriotism in our history, two different definitions of American exceptionalism: a sense that our greatness is based on our provenance and what we have achieved, and a belief that our greatness lies in our promise and how we attempt to live up to our ideals.

Conservatives and liberals have been arguing about these two strains for years, and that debate has become the pivot of our politics. Republicans have contended that they are the true legatees of the nation's heritage and attack Democrats for being ashamed of America. Democrats in turn depict Republicans as chest-thumping nationalists who prevent America from living up to its ideals. Both of these are caricatures.

In Barack Obama, the first African-American presidential nominee, the mixed-race child of a single mother, we have a candidate whose perspective on--and experience of--America are different from those of any other nominee in history. In John McCain, we have the son and grandson of admirals who suffered grievously for his country and has spent his life as a public servant. To say that one of these represents the American Dream and the other does not is to set up a false choice. As they show in their own words on the following pages, both men embody the great traditions of American patriotism.

What we need going forward is third-way patriotism, a new patriotism that blends the faith of our fathers with, as Lincoln said, the unfinished work remaining before us. That new patriotism, as Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer write in The True Patriot, means "appreciating not only what is great about our country but also what it takes to create and sustain greatness." That formulation is what this campaign should be about: defining America's course in the 21st century. The candidates may have different views on what makes us proud to be Americans, but they share a belief in a modern American exceptionalism: that America has a greatness of purpose that no other nation does, and that for all our achievement, our greatest tasks remain before us.