Samuel Johnson, the famous 18th-century British lexicographer, opined that "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel" (Life of Johnson) To be clear, let's define exactly what "scoundrel" means here. The word may conjure for many an image quaint innocence, like the words "ragamuffin" or "upsidaisy." After all, "scoundrel" fits nicely in our de facto method for determining a word's quaint gentility: "You, sir, are a . . . ."
But in Johnson's day, and, in certain circles, up until the compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary's 2nd edition, the word was an insult of the highest order. OED2 cites Johnson's own dictionary for its first nounal usage: "A. n. 'A mean rascal, a low petty villain' (J.)." It then goes on to record an added, more strenuous modern valance: "Now usually with stronger sense: An audacious rascal, one destitute of all moral scruple." Now, despite my potification on the word's meaning, not even bonafide Johnsonians know precisely what Johnson meant by the statement, since our (and I don't mean to imply I'm one of those bonafide Johnsonians) only source for the line fails to provide a context. Still, let me brave a guess or two.
Meanings of Johnson's statement:
1.) When politicians avoid or deflect matters of pressing national importance
by invoking false patriotism with non-issues such as flag burning, they are scoundrels.
2.) When politicans call occupations wars in an effort to stir nationalistic sentiment, they are scoundrels.
3.) When politicians refer to decorated war heroes as cowards hoping to inflate the public's perception of their own patriotism, they are scoundrels.
4.) When politicians manufacture threats to the nation in a partial effort to spur national pride, they are scoundrels.
5.) When we define ourselves foremost as Americans, not as human beings, then we become scoundrels.
It's not a pretty word.