Progressive Patriot
Image courtesy of Jim Burklo
Who am I?
Who are you?
Am I my body? -- which is very, very different than the body I had when I was born, when I was 6 years old, when I was 21 years old, when I was 41, when I was….
Am I my personality? As a child, I was shy. As a young adult, I was pretty uptight… but in my mid-twenties, I became free-spirited. (Maybe too free-spirited.) With age, I have gained equanimity. What’s next for my personality?
New Burklo ident
Am I my opinions? My affiliations? They’ve changed greatly over my lifespan. I grew up with a conservative world-view. That morphed into a politically progressive perspective over time.
If I’m really serious about spiritual practice, I need to dissociate my true self from these transitory social and political and personal and physical identities. My true self is divine, compassionate consciousness itself. God, in other words. And God is above and beyond any partisan loyalty.
At the same time, my experience of divine compassion in Christian contemplation moves me to engage with the world accordingly. And that leads me, inexorably, toward defending democracy in this time of unprecedented threats against it. There’s no way to make compassion real in the structures of society without just governance. And there’s no just governance without the rule of law, determined by the will of the majority of citizens expressed in free and fair elections.
Without democracy, there’s little hope of extending decent health care to all. Little chance of attenuating severe economic inequality and the corrosion of democracy that results from it. Little chance of meaningful action to prevent catastrophic climate change. Little chance of making further progress against racism and sexism and homophobia.
Today we face existential threats to democracy from Republican-dominated states, which are passing voter suppression laws and enabling themselves to cancel the results of free and fair elections, all on the basis of outrageously spurious claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent. And we face the prospect of massive civil unrest, or even civil war, should the next presidential election turn out the way the last one did.
What happened on 1/6/2021 is the consequence of a long-term spiritual malaise, centered on the "who am I?" question. It is the direct consequence of decades of right-wing extremist propaganda convincing millions of people that their precious identities are threatened.
People would rather die physically than suffer the death of their sense of self, which for millions of people consists of being "real" Americans who are under assault from "leftist traitors". That’s the only way to explain why so many Republican voters have refused to be vaccinated, and have maintained their objection even as they lie on their Covid deathbeds. It’s the only way to explain why so many working-class people voted for Trump even though his policies went directly against their economic interests. And it is the way to explain why so many Americans are now willing to settle their political scores with violence.
To save democracy, and to save the Republic on which it stands, we must address this malaise for what it is: a spiritual crisis. We must separate our true selves from any political affiliation or orientation. We must counter the relentless propaganda that has divided America into us and them, real Americans versus the Marxists, wokeists, and the godless.
We must separate patriotism from right-wing extremism.
And the way to do that is to reclaim a healthy patriotism for everybody.
Political progressives have abandoned the symbols and language of patriotism – for the same fundamental reason that right-wingers have embraced them. We identify overt expressions of American patriotism with right-wingers. Therefore, to protect our precious identities as progressives, we shun such symbols and language. Evidence? The enormous Women’s Marches of a few years back. I went to the ones in Los Angeles, and was one of but a handful of folks who waved the US flag. People looked at me funny until they saw the “pro-choice” sign I carried under it. At those demonstrations and others after them, I have handed out flags to people who at first were reticent to accept them - but with just a bit of encouragement and explanation, they nodded and started to wave them with me.
If we were spiritually mature, we’d understand that our true selves are one with the Ultimate Reality of pure love. We’d wear all other identities very lightly.
And in that spirit, I pray that we of the progressive political persuasion let go of our hang-ups about waving the flag and singing the national anthem, and wear our American patriotism visibly, happily, often – and with humility. We’re patriots because we are joining with heroes throughout our nation’s history in working to right America’s wrongs. We’re patriots because we defend majority rule through free and fair elections. We’re patriots because we work to extend opportunity and choice and security to all. We’re patriots because we believe in a humble America that works with other nations to protect the planet.
Our folks need to out-flag the flaggy folks until we’re all united in flagful fellowship. If progressives become unabashedly patriotic, that will make it much harder for people of the right-wing persuasion to claim that their patriotic identities are under attack. And if they begin to lose their anger and fear, then real dialogue through democracy can resume.
Progressive patriots, arise!