{"id":2521,"date":"2026-06-22T21:08:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T21:08:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=2521"},"modified":"2026-06-22T21:08:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T21:08:06","slug":"opinion-defining-the-heart-of-a-nation-patriotism-vs-nationalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=2521","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: Defining the heart of a nation \u2014 patriotism vs. nationalism"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cThis land is your land. This land is my land. From California to the New York Island. From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters, this land was made for you and me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more British Prime Minister Starmer resigns, joins string of early exits<\/a><\/p>\n

And as we move toward our nation\u2019s 250th birthday \u2014 and amid the most polarized nation in my lifetime \u2014 I\u2019ve been thinking a lot about the identity of our country. I\u2019ve been pondering the differences between patriotism and nationalism. I am concerned that they are being conflated, but they are most definitely not the same thing.<\/p>\n

In Utah, and around the country, feelings of patriotism are on the decline. I wonder how much of that, however, is due to a lack of agreement on what patriotism is.<\/p>\n

According to Charles de Gaulle, who led France against Nazi Germany during World War II and later became president of France, \u201cPatriotism is when love of your own people comes first; nationalism, when hate for people other than your own comes first.\u201d<\/p>\n

The power of devotion vs. the hunger for power<\/h3>\n

Patriotism is \u201cdevotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force on other people.\u201d On the other hand, \u201cnationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception,\u201d George Orwell wrote in a 1945 essay titled \u201cNotes on Nationalism.\u201d <\/p>\n

America is not just a place, although it is indeed a beautiful place, from sea to shining sea. America is an idea. It\u2019s one of the things I love the most about America. It\u2019s an aspirational idea, grounded in constitutional order, a belief in individual liberty, unalienable rights, that we allare created equal. An aspirational idea also leaves room to acknowledge gaps in where we\u2019re trying to go.<\/p>\n

Nationalism, on the other hand, isolates and separates. It drives comparison, not so we can learn and improve, but to use as a wedge and a weapon with which to beat our opponents. <\/p>\n

\u201cEvery nationalist is capable of the most flagrant dishonesty, but he is also \u2026 unshakeably certain of being in the right,\u201d Orwell wrote in the aforementioned essay. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll nationalists have the power of not seeing resemblances between similar sets of facts,\u201d he wrote. \u201cActions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them, and there is almost no kind of outrage \u2014 torture, the use of hostages, forced labour, mass deportations, imprisonment without trial, forgery, assassination, the bombing of civilians \u2014 which does not change its moral colour when it is committed by \u2018our\u2019 side.\u201d <\/p>\n

It\u2019s almost as if Orwell, who died in 1950, could see our day. <\/p>\n

The \u2018golden calf\u2019 of national idolatry<\/h3>\n

Patriotism says, \u201cI love my country and I know you do too, even if we don\u2019t agree.\u201d Nationalism says, \u201cBecause you look different than me\/think differently\/worship differently\/belong to a different political party, then you hate your country,\u201d or, even worse, \u201cYou don\u2019t belong here.\u201d <\/p>\n

Episcopal priest Joseph Yoo describes the differences between patriotism and nationalism as he sees them:<\/p>\n

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\u201cPatriotism is love. It\u2019s gratitude. It\u2019s saying I care about my country enough to tell the truth about it, to celebrate what\u2019s good, to work to fix what\u2019s broken.\u201d<\/p>\n

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But, he says, nationalism is idolatry. Nationalism is when you say, \u201cMy nation is the nation above critique. It\u2019s God\u2019s favorite. And once you slap God\u2019s seal of approval on your flag, congratulations, you\u2019ve just made your country a golden calf.<\/p>\n

\u201cPatriotism says, \u2018I love my family enough to admit when we\u2019ve messed up, and I will help us grow,\u2019\u201d Yoo said. \u201cNationalism says, \u2018My family is perfect, everyone else is trash, and if you disagree, you are out.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never seen a time in my lifetime when neighbors, colleagues and even family members can have such intensely adverse feelings for each other based on the lawn sign they have. <\/p>\n

Patriotism requires truth<\/h3>\n

Living up to the ideals set forth in the Declaration of Independence requires the ability to see and share the truth. Mark Twain said, \u201cPatriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it.\u201d <\/p>\n

President Theodore Roosevelt said, \u201cPatriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him (or her) to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe difference between patriotism and nationalism is that the patriot is proud of his country for what it does, and the nationalist is proud of his country no matter what it does,\u201d said American journalist Sydney J. Harris. <\/p>\n

Hannah Stratford, a high school social studies teacher and master\u2019s student at UVU, wrote recently about why the Declaration of Independence promised equality if it wasn\u2019t true, especially when it was written. \u201cWe hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,\u201d but 1776 was a time when even the author of the declaration held slaves, when women largely could not own property and could not vote, and when any non-white, non-male residents were often barely an afterthought, if that.<\/p>\n

But instead of being used as a weapon with which to further exclude the excluded, Stratford wrote that \u201cthe declaration has been a beacon of hope for marginalized communities. Across history, Americans did not reject the declaration because its claims fell short. Rather, they grasped its promises and used it as a powerful leverage for change.\u201d <\/p>\n

She pointed to the Frederick Douglass question about the meaning of the Fourth of July to a slave, to the women\u2019s suffrage movement and to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s assertion that the declaration was a promissory note that the Civil Rights Movement was there to cash. <\/p>\n

The Declaration of Independence, she said, \u201cwasn\u2019t written because equality was already in place, but because it is worth fighting for.\u201d<\/p>\n

I agree with her. Equality is still worth fighting for. Our friends and neighbors are worth fighting for. People we have never met are worth fighting for. <\/p>\n

Read more Hill Air Force Base, Utah National Guard to celebrate America 250 with statewide flyover<\/a><\/p>\n

America, with all her flaws, is still an idea worth fighting for. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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