Is Mitch McConnell a patriot? Who and what counts as patriotic these days?

In a recent issue, The Nation asked the question: “Is There a Place for Patriotism on the Left?” For the affirmative Michael Kazin argued that love of country means cherishing “our civic ideals of social equality, individual freedom, and populist democracy – as well as the unending struggle to put their laudable, if often contradictory, claims into practice.” Rafia Zakaria, by contrast, contended that current nationalism precludes even the quest for the realization of those ideals, inasmuch as patriotism prevents us from including the world outside our borders in that quest.

I would give the nod to Kazin, if only because Zakaria’s patriotism seems unnecessarily parochial. But the exchange raised in my mind another question that deserves discussion: “Is There a Place for Patriotism on the Right?” Of course, the Right has for so long co-opted the term and its symbols that one is inclined to grant that, for all the Right’s failings, patriotism is one claim to which it is entitled.

But is it? One needs to look more closely at both the meaning of “patriotism” as well as the present state of the Right in America. If we understand the term as Kazin does, as a love of country manifested in the ongoing struggle to live up to the ideals set down by the Founders, then it is difficult to find anything patriotic about the Right’s stance on the major issues confronting the country today.

What is patriotic about regarding taxes as something bordering on state theft of the taxpayer’s “hard-earned” income? That argument blithely ignores the reality that taxes are not a punitive weapon utilized by “the deep state” but the means by which government addresses critical needs that it and its agencies can best meet.

What is patriotic about championing “free enterprise” and deregulation that produces an economy of galloping inequality and does irreparable damage to the planet? What is patriotic about enacting laws to undermine organized labor’s ability to pursue economic justice and a safe working environment?

What is patriotic about xenophobic opposition to immigration reform needed to provide a work force large enough to ensure economic productivity? What is patriotic about a mindless resistance to any gun legislation which will diminish the threat that weapons pose for public safety? What is patriotic about imperiling the nation’s health by refusing to observe mandates combating pandemics? What is patriotic about attempting to prevent educators from carrying out their obligations to broaden their students’ horizons? The Right, instead, insists on sheltering them from the racism and sexual bigotry that pervades the world they have inherited.

What is patriotic about Mitch McConnell’s supreme demonstration of putting party above country by his pledge to support Donald Trump once again in 2024, even though McConnell has judged Trump deserving of criminal prosecution for inciting an insurrection! What is patriotic about passing legislation to prune the electorate and put partisans in control of election results? What is patriotic about pretending there is no need for a Congressional investigation into the events of January 2021 which came so close to ending our democracy?

In brief, how can one be patriotic if one lacks a civic consciousness? Given the libertarian domination of what passes today for conservatism, it seems increasingly clear that “the patriotic Right” has become an oxymoron. The inconvenient truth is that the libertarian strain cultivates a narcissistic, tribal mentality that wars against any true patriotism. Instead, it reduces it to little more than the empty symbolism of flag totems and rote pledges of allegiance. Along with enforced conformity, the suppression of dissent, and the celebration of authoritarians.

We need badly to recover a patriotism rooted in the civic ideals that alone give legitimacy to any nationalism we might favor. Authentic patriotism can only find expression in an informed, civic-minded citizenry.

Robert Emmett Curran, Professor of History Emeritus at Georgetown University, is the author of “American Catholics and the Quest for Equality in the Civil War Era, forthcoming from Louisiana State University Press.”