Hi All. Thanks for all the comments! And a heads up. Please join me and presidential historian Lindsay Chervinsky the week of July 4 for a discussion about her book, “Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic." We'll explore Adams's lasting impact on the presidency, and what it means as we mark America 250 for the next edition of The Bulwark Book Club. I want to hear from you! Drop you questions for Lindsay here: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/bulwark-book-club-for-july-making. More details to come.
I don't fly my flag every day, but, when the weather cooperates, I try to fly it during the patriotic season from Memorial Day through Independence Day, with Flag Day in the middle. I especially relish flying it on our newest national holiday, Juneteenth, when we commemorate the final end of slavery in the US.
I still love what I was raught that America was supposed to stand for, and I loved the actual country when we at least attempted to live up to it. But that seems a bygone era.
The only thing this country will ever get from me is the double-finger salute. It's 2026, and we're STILL "debating" trans rights?!?! We're still pretending that neoliberalism and the Chicago School has ANY validity whatsoever?!?! We're in yet ANOTHER BS foreign war?!?!
The whole essay implies that love of America is something I "owe". Guess what, I don't. This sorry country isn't worthy of me. Buh-bye.
I have a very old and slightly beat-up 13 star Betsy Ross flag. I used to call it my "damned Yankee" flag and it was kind of my personal inside joke about East Coast parochialism. I'm a Jersey boy and i was grown in layers of history. I was proud of that, and proud of the colonies who undertook the cause of liberty. Plus i'm just naturally contrary.
Only this year it is taking on a different meaning. I look at it now and it evokes the *spirit* of revolutionary times, and it represents American principles and values more broadly. I look at it now and it doesn't represent just 13 colonies, but rather the human spirit and men willing to die for the cause of freedom. That's why i'm taking it out of mothballs, giving it a wash, and flying it proudly in celebration of our 250th.
It's an American flag but it is not *the* American flag. This allows me to decouple from the currently fashionable jingoism and fly a symbol of unity. Observers will of course make their own interpretations but i know what i mean.
I was recently told by someone dear to me that she was "scared" of the US Flag. Around here it tends to fly in the back of pickup trucks, paired with a Trump flag. She's not scared of the flag itself she's frightened of the intent behind it... what it is intended to communicate. Symbolism is powerful and it is indeed dispiriting to see our flag usurped by a spiteful, vindictive, hateful cult.
Tell me you have a rifle in your truck, without telling me you have a rifle in your truck. I got one in my truck too, i just don't advertise.
What i'm getting at is i wonder if maybe all the rest of us should fly the Betsy Ross this year.
We usually fly the Stars and Stripes from our front porch in July. Not this year. It would be more appropriate to drape black mourning bunting from the railings and wear my black ANTIFA t shirt to the fireworks display at our community park.
Mona, I have quoted this elsewhere on Substack recently, but I keep coming back to it in our current times. As Mark Twain laid it out over a century ago: "The modern patriotism, the true patriotism, the only rational patriotism, is loyalty to the Nation ALL the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it."
Wanting a nation primarily of Christians does NOT equate to wanting a theocracy. Given the diversity of Christians, it does not even equate to homogeneity.
Well, it's definitely boring, and somewhat frightening. Christianity is the OG hegemonic power. Destroying all the beautiful religions that came before it. All for capitalism and trade. BORING....
Mona - One thing that has lifted me up during this time is watching the World Cup. It's been so heartening to see fans from all over the world come and be welcomed in America - in spite of the racism and xenophobia spewed by this administration and its lackeys.
I've loved seeing the Scots in Boston, the Algerians in Lawrence, Kansas (!), and even the Iranian team get a warm welcome in LA.
I'll rep my US soccer gear proudly tomorrow and engage in the closest thing we have left to a global communal experience - watching a soccer match.
So many gems here! "It is our very reverence for the country that makes us recoil from the tawdry circus Trump hosted." And "Ironic, isn’t it, that the very people who used poles with American flags attached as spears against policemen at the Capitol on January 6th have the gall to drape themselves in it today? " I'm convinced much of the country has completely lost the plot, and let fear and hatred overcome what once were basic civic values.
One of the things I've tried to teach my sons is this: Love - real love, good love, healthy love - is additive. The more we reach out in and for love, the more we find to draw from, spread, share.
That doesn't mean love is easy. Like the old adage goes: "I love you, but I don't really *like* you right now."
I love my country. I'm frustrated with my country. I'm deeply worried for my country. I want to shake some sense into a whole lot of leaders of my country and voters as well. I am angry and scared.
I don't really *like* my country right now.
But I still love my country. None of the above subtracts from that love because that love is fundamentally additive so long as I tend it. That doesn't mean I will compromise my morals, ethics and core values. Love doesn't magically make everything better, but it does go a long way towards making things bearable and fueling the commitment required to continue to strive towards better.
Hi All. Thanks for all the comments! And a heads up. Please join me and presidential historian Lindsay Chervinsky the week of July 4 for a discussion about her book, “Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic." We'll explore Adams's lasting impact on the presidency, and what it means as we mark America 250 for the next edition of The Bulwark Book Club. I want to hear from you! Drop you questions for Lindsay here: https://www.thebulwark.com/p/bulwark-book-club-for-july-making. More details to come.
MAGA framing: If you recoil from Trump’s vulgar patriot-theater, you hate America.
⠀
Actual frame: The recoil is evidence of attachment. You don’t feel desecration unless you believe something sacred is being desecrated.
I don't fly my flag every day, but, when the weather cooperates, I try to fly it during the patriotic season from Memorial Day through Independence Day, with Flag Day in the middle. I especially relish flying it on our newest national holiday, Juneteenth, when we commemorate the final end of slavery in the US.
If I said I couldn’t love America right now, that would be surrendering America to Trump and MAGA. Trump and MAGA are not America.
Also, we got a “No Kings” flag which we will fly next to the American flag this July 4, just so no one gets confused.
I still love what I was raught that America was supposed to stand for, and I loved the actual country when we at least attempted to live up to it. But that seems a bygone era.
How about NO???
The only thing this country will ever get from me is the double-finger salute. It's 2026, and we're STILL "debating" trans rights?!?! We're still pretending that neoliberalism and the Chicago School has ANY validity whatsoever?!?! We're in yet ANOTHER BS foreign war?!?!
The whole essay implies that love of America is something I "owe". Guess what, I don't. This sorry country isn't worthy of me. Buh-bye.
tell us how you feel, that's ok. Since Trump came around I've had the same reaction off and on.
I have a very old and slightly beat-up 13 star Betsy Ross flag. I used to call it my "damned Yankee" flag and it was kind of my personal inside joke about East Coast parochialism. I'm a Jersey boy and i was grown in layers of history. I was proud of that, and proud of the colonies who undertook the cause of liberty. Plus i'm just naturally contrary.
Only this year it is taking on a different meaning. I look at it now and it evokes the *spirit* of revolutionary times, and it represents American principles and values more broadly. I look at it now and it doesn't represent just 13 colonies, but rather the human spirit and men willing to die for the cause of freedom. That's why i'm taking it out of mothballs, giving it a wash, and flying it proudly in celebration of our 250th.
It's an American flag but it is not *the* American flag. This allows me to decouple from the currently fashionable jingoism and fly a symbol of unity. Observers will of course make their own interpretations but i know what i mean.
I was recently told by someone dear to me that she was "scared" of the US Flag. Around here it tends to fly in the back of pickup trucks, paired with a Trump flag. She's not scared of the flag itself she's frightened of the intent behind it... what it is intended to communicate. Symbolism is powerful and it is indeed dispiriting to see our flag usurped by a spiteful, vindictive, hateful cult.
Tell me you have a rifle in your truck, without telling me you have a rifle in your truck. I got one in my truck too, i just don't advertise.
What i'm getting at is i wonder if maybe all the rest of us should fly the Betsy Ross this year.
We usually fly the Stars and Stripes from our front porch in July. Not this year. It would be more appropriate to drape black mourning bunting from the railings and wear my black ANTIFA t shirt to the fireworks display at our community park.
Be careful that's a federal offense.
Don't let MAGA appropriate the flag.
Thank you Mona. You put my feelings into words and it is nice to know that I am not alone!
Mona, I have quoted this elsewhere on Substack recently, but I keep coming back to it in our current times. As Mark Twain laid it out over a century ago: "The modern patriotism, the true patriotism, the only rational patriotism, is loyalty to the Nation ALL the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it."
Well said. Thank you.
“ while only 34 percent want a nation primarily of Christians.”
This is a troublingly high number. So like half (or more) of all Christian’s in America want a theocracy, or at least homogeneity?
Wanting a nation primarily of Christians does NOT equate to wanting a theocracy. Given the diversity of Christians, it does not even equate to homogeneity.
Well, it's definitely boring, and somewhat frightening. Christianity is the OG hegemonic power. Destroying all the beautiful religions that came before it. All for capitalism and trade. BORING....
Mona - One thing that has lifted me up during this time is watching the World Cup. It's been so heartening to see fans from all over the world come and be welcomed in America - in spite of the racism and xenophobia spewed by this administration and its lackeys.
I've loved seeing the Scots in Boston, the Algerians in Lawrence, Kansas (!), and even the Iranian team get a warm welcome in LA.
I'll rep my US soccer gear proudly tomorrow and engage in the closest thing we have left to a global communal experience - watching a soccer match.
So many gems here! "It is our very reverence for the country that makes us recoil from the tawdry circus Trump hosted." And "Ironic, isn’t it, that the very people who used poles with American flags attached as spears against policemen at the Capitol on January 6th have the gall to drape themselves in it today? " I'm convinced much of the country has completely lost the plot, and let fear and hatred overcome what once were basic civic values.
Thank you Mona.
One of the things I've tried to teach my sons is this: Love - real love, good love, healthy love - is additive. The more we reach out in and for love, the more we find to draw from, spread, share.
That doesn't mean love is easy. Like the old adage goes: "I love you, but I don't really *like* you right now."
I love my country. I'm frustrated with my country. I'm deeply worried for my country. I want to shake some sense into a whole lot of leaders of my country and voters as well. I am angry and scared.
I don't really *like* my country right now.
But I still love my country. None of the above subtracts from that love because that love is fundamentally additive so long as I tend it. That doesn't mean I will compromise my morals, ethics and core values. Love doesn't magically make everything better, but it does go a long way towards making things bearable and fueling the commitment required to continue to strive towards better.
Well said!