To Be or Not to Be a Patriot

We constantly hear politicians encourage patriotism or summon patriotic duty. They always do this in order to garner support for a government program or initiative, usually resulting in taxation or debt, or they do it to illicit allegiance to our government.

A cursory review of historical evidence will show their version of patriotism to be blatantly wrong.

However, I will say these politicians’ continual erroneous, or rather deceptive, assertions regarding patriotism have been effective, considering the caws and grumbles I hear from so many Americans.

So, let’s give history a cursory review:

First we must agree when we refer to patriots it is with respect to the American colonial revolutionaries who fought in the American War of Independence and further created the United States of America, and this is where we get our notions of patriotism from.

The tides of the revolutionary movement began well before the U.S.A. was invented. The government at the time was the English crown. The insurgency grew from what the American colonists believed were successive and excessive encroachments on their liberties from their own government. Where did these notions of liberty come from? We must consider the era.

This was the era of Enlightenment—the Age of Reason. This era began where the Renaissance era left off, which in turn was birthed after the end of the medieval era. The point is there was a succession of growth or change in human thought regarding philosophy, religion, politics, etc. The Enlightenment was an aggregation of philosophical thoughts regarding the roles of humanity, government and spirituality with successive iterations leaning more and more in favor of natural laws, human freewill, limited government and religious freedom.

These were the philosophical roots that were wide spread among the American colonists as can be attributed to the writings and actions of the leaders of the revolutionary movement and the founding fathers of the United States of America. I would suggest reviewing the writings of Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson that were instrumental to the revolutionary movement. Both of these men were influenced by the writings and ideas of John Locke, Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill.

Those who were sympathetic to the cause of the revolutionary movement were called, or considered themselves as, patriots—loyal to the cause. The cause was the ideas of freedom and autonomy. Those who were sympathetic to the government’s cause were called loyalists.

Let’s consult the dictionary’s definition of patriot:
–noun
1. a person who loves, supports, and defends his or her country and its interests with devotion.

2. a person who regards himself or herself as a defender, esp. of individual rights, against presumed interference by the federal government.

3. (initial capital letter ) Military. a U.S. Army antiaircraft missile with a range of 37 mi. (60 km) and a 200-lb. (90 kg) warhead, launched from a tracked vehicle with radar and computer guidance and fire control.

Notice there is no mention of “loyalty to government”. So then, are your country and your government one in the same? Politicians would have you believe they are. However, take a closer look at the second definition. Early American historical evidence supports they are not the same.

The patriots were fighting their own government against encroachments on their freedom. These encroachments came in the form of repeated legally-sanctioned government Acts coercing physical force, restrictive regulations and taxation that the colonists believed impeded their civil and economic liberties. They believed that the actions of the government were not representative of the interests of the colonists, as iterated in the revolutionary slogan “no taxation without representation”. I’m particularly fond of another slogan of the movement, “Don’t Tread on Me!”

I’d like to point out that the taxes the patriots went to war over represented less than 6% of their production. Consider that when a politician talks of patriotism with regard to raising taxes. In fact, consider the percentage of 6% when you pay your annual income tax in the area of 25-38%. It kind of puts things into perspective, doesn’t it?

The patriots were essentially Englishmen, but they considered their country to be America. Keep in mind; this was well before the country of America was under the control of the government of the United States of America. The patriots were clearly loyal to their country, or rather what they perceived were the interests of their country; they were clearly not loyal to their government.

Our founding fathers had a very skeptical impression of government and were all too aware of the nature of government and the nature of power. With this understanding, they were quite clear in their devotion to creating a government with severely limited powers as was expressed with the U.S. Constitution. Furthermore, their devotion to the ideas of liberty was expressed with a Bill of Rights as Amendments to the Constitution.

Our founding fathers were also skeptical of the power of mob rule or "tyranny of the majority". This is why the United States was formed as a republic and not a democracy. That's right, the United States of America is not a democracy. The word democracy does not appear in any of our founding documents. It's not even in our Pledge of Allegience. The U.S.A is a Constitutional Republic. They did this to protect the people's liberties from enemies both foreign and domestic, including their own government and from shifting currents of conventional wisdom.

Defending the interests of your country, in America, means to defend the ideas of freedom and autonomy; this is patriotic. Defending the interests of your government, which by its nature is a mechanism of force and control with an unyielding tendency to grow its power, is wholly unpatriotic.

Consider history when you claim to be or not to be a patriot. If you truly wish to honor the patriotic men and women who fought and died for their country, remember that your country and your government are not the same thing.

"Liberty or Death"