This really scares me:
It can currently be seen in the lower right of the GOP homepage, and I find it to be terrifying, as to me it is a major step down the "flag-wrapping" road that Republicans have already embraced. Granted, Democrats can be guilty of the same thing on occasion, but the use of nationalism (e.g. "patriotism", etc.) for political purposes is really something the Bush administration has made into central part of their partisan boondoggling. More below the break...
What precisely do I mean when I say that this "blurs the line between nationalism and partisanship", you ask? There's nothing wrong with having pride in one's country, and there's nothing wrong with having pride in one's party, and the unity of the two seems to make perfect sense, right?
Well I'll answer my own obviously rhetorical question: no, it's not right. For one thing, I'm not so sure that the "proud to be an American" meme is a good one (I'm more of a fan of the idea of being "humbled to be an American"), but excepting that it is still extremely dangerous to combine nationalistic fervor with any sort of potentially dividing concept. And well, partisanship is a dividing concept if I ever heard of one.
The role of nationalism in a democracy is dubious: historically, nationalism keeps a country united and helps it chin through tough times. It makes it so people are willing to sacrifice for the greater good: go to war in name of king and/or country, all that. And these issues still come up with a democracy: while the Bush administration may be a tad too dramatic about it at times, we are most definitely in a mortal battle with a number of groups hostile to us (whether justifiably or unjustifiably so). A bit of nationalistic rallying is good: it helped us get through 9/11 and truly shine, for a brief while at least.
When did we stop shining? When nationalism became partisan. When the Bush administration used the uber-political capital of 9/11 to push their own agenda, both at home and abroad. And nationalism continued to be partisan, through the election. Attacks on "patriotism" helped ouster such truly brave and wholly good public servants as Senator Max Cleland and also greatly weakened Kerry's presidential campaign.
As I said above, Democrats do the same thing, though not as often or as well. And they largely "turn it off" once the election season is over: red/white/blue is still the general color theme of their websites, but it's not like they're constantly evoking the flag in all their proclamations.
Republicans, on the other hand, seem to be at it as hard as ever. And this is what scares me even more than using nationalism politically during the election: using nationalism politically after the election, after they've won. They're still wrapping themselves in the flag, and doing so as baldly as ever. While the image above that triggered this in me may seem trivial, I believe it to be another example of the quite brilliant linguistic manipulation that the GOP does. First they turned the word "liberal" into a slur, and now they're directly equating their own being "Republican" as being, well, American. Being proud, patriotic, nationalistic, and just generally good people. If this continues, then the next generation (of conservatives, at least) will grow up believing themselves to be the only real Americans.
I know that's not always been the case: partisanship has always been a bit bitter and involved a lot of rivalry, but never has half the country truly believed the other half to be "un-American" (well except maybe the Civil War, but I think we'd rather not repeat that one). I don't even believe that to be the case now, though we're starting to tread down that dangerous road.
So, what can we do? We can remind everyone that we are Americans too. The oft-maligned "liberal elites" of New York epitomize America just as much as the fields and farms of the mid-west. Ours is a country of cultural riches, granted not much original but rather synthesized and composed of diverse immigrants, but the result is still fantastic. Whenever you hear someone try to use nationalism in a partisan fashion (be it for the "left" or the "right" or whomever), remind them of this. Remind them that we are all American. If enough of us stand above the fray, then those left in it will either realize how stupid it is and become insignificant.
We should be partisan too: this is a partisan website, and we want "our guys" to win. Same goes for the "other side." But when it comes to nationalism, when it comes to being an American, that's something that we all are, and we need to not forget it.