The Decline in Patriotism & Partisanship's Responsibility For It

This is a complicated subject and I am probably not going to do it justice.

David Brooks in today's column addresses the decline in patriotism that has been present in the U.S. since its founding as a British colony.  It is measured by polling the question of how proud you are of the U.S.A.  Today only 52% are extremely proud and among those 18 to 29 only 34% are extremely proud.

Brooks writes that the Puritans used self examination as a means of purification and their belief that they could create a just society based on the moral premise that all men are created equal gave people who lived here a sense of purpose and an ideal to live up to and it bonded everyone together in a manner that created a unifying civil religion.

Brook's focus on the column is addressing imitators of Colin Kaepernick and the importance of the ritual of showing respect when the National Anthem is played to the sense of we are all in this together.

What he misses is the reality that partisanship on the part of political leaders resulting in a failure to address problems that a sufficient minority of people believe in causes disillusionment in those people for the ideals that this country is built around.

So when Black Lives Matter believers are insulted as not caring about the lives of police, which I do not believe to be the case because there are many African American police, the Black Lives Matter sympathizers might have a problem saying they are extremely proud of their country.

And I could go on with almost any other issue that is important to some significant minority of citizens.  The gridlock in Washington policy making with the only discussion being the running down of the righteousness of the concern represented by those points of view, instead of debating possible ways in which we could address the problem while maintaining fiscal responsibility.

Zika funding for the CDC comes to mind how this develops.  Conservatives want to put Planned Parenthood out of business so they take every opportunity to try to prevent them from getting Federal Funds. Yet a substantial % of the population likes planned parenthood and does not want to get the Zika virus.  This unrelenting focus almost certainly prevents those scared of Zika and Planned Parenthood supporters from saying they are proud of their country.

Donald Trump and the popularity of the Kardashian culture in general generates angst in me about this country.  It is difficult to be proud of that and it might effect my answer to that question if polled, but I can still visualize ways in which I can be a responsible citizens.

I wil stop here but I guess the real issue is what is patriotism in a country of 300,000,000 and voluntary military that only needs a 1.3 mm people.