This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis.
This July 4 will be the first Independence Day of Joe Biden’s presidency. Americans can celebrate the holiday by expressing their patriotism around a set of ideas and principles instead of Donald Trump’s insistence that patriotism is about fealty to one man and his government.
Still having this persistent problem with Tories.
“You’ll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race.”
George Bernard Shaw
It’s coming through a hole in the air
From those nights in Tiananmen Square
It’s coming from the feel
That this ain’t exactly real
Or it’s real, but it ain’t exactly there
From the war against disorder
From the sirens night and day
From the fires of the homeless
From the ashes of the gay
Democracy is coming to the USAIt’s coming through a crack in the wall
On a visionary flood of alcohol
From the staggering account
Of the Sermon on the Mount
Which I don’t pretend to understand at all
It’s coming from the silence
On the dock of the bay
From the brave, the bold, the battered
Heart of Chevrolet
Democracy is coming to the USAIt’s coming from the sorrow in the street
The holy places where the races meet
From the homicidal bitchin’
That goes down in every kitchen
To determine who will serve and who will eat
From the wells of disappointment
Where the women kneel to pray
For the grace of God in the desert here
And the desert far away
Democracy is coming to the USASail on, sail on
O mighty ship of state
To the shores of need
Past the reefs of greed
Through the squalls of hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail onIt’s coming to America first
The cradle of the best and of the worst
It’s here they got the range
And the machinery for change
And it’s here they got the spiritual thirst
It’s here the family’s broken
And it’s here the lonely say
That the heart has got to open
In a fundamental way
Democracy is coming to the USAIt’s coming from the women and the men
Oh baby, we’ll be making love again
We’ll be going down so deep
The river’s going to weep
And the mountain’s going to shout, “Amen”
It’s coming like the tidal flood
Beneath the lunar sway
Imperial, mysterious
In amorous array
Democracy is coming to the USASail on, sail on
O mighty ship of state
To the shores of need
Past the reefs of greed
Through the squalls of hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail onI’m sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I can’t stand the scene
And I’m neither left or right
I’m just staying home tonight
Getting lost in that hopeless little screen
But I’m stubborn as those garbage bags
That time cannot decay
I’m junk but I’m still holding up this little wild bouquet
Democracy is coming to the USA
To the USA
Written and sung by a Canadian!
Amen. Arriving on a boat after WWII, my parents worked to make life for themselves and their children. They availed themselves of the opportunities they could find - a college education for my father, well-paying jobs once citizenship had been obtained, a middle class life for their family - basically the things all people want for themselves and their loved ones. Along the way, we were all taught to respect the talents and contributions of everyone, irrespective of race, nationality, or wealth. I have never understood the impulse by so many to exclude by reason of sex or skin color or money or accent, when the contributions of all are needed to make the world a better place for all of us.
With that, happy 4th everyone! 
Yes. I thought I recognized the lyrics! (I’m usually not very good in that dept.) Leonard Cohen was truly a treasure.
ETA Thanks! @LeeHarveyGriswold
Bellamy…[who wrote the Pledge of Allegiance]… believed that unbridled capitalism, materialism, and individualism betrayed America’s promise
The answer lives in the majority.
This patriot thing is like religion where atheists’ frequently know more about it than the cradle religious who were born into it. Those who protest injustices have to constantly question their reasons as they are swatted down by the powers of the status quo. People who think they are patriotic because they bought a few cases of beer and a huge pile of fireworks to annoy their neighbors and spark up a few wild fires certainly believe they are patriots, but really don’t want to be bothered with the issues of the world.
Happy Fourth. Long may you wave.
Written and sung by a Canadian!
Really? That’s too bad.
Idealization is the practice of cloaking selfish aims (which can include hatred against others) while doing it in the name of socially approved norms.
Such as the old time College Dorm Director who hates college students and who cloaks these feelings with his “discipline”.
Patriotism is often used in that manner.
As @tao said, sometimes it takes someone with a bit of distance to see things clearly. Leonard Cohen had an amazing ability to get to the heart of things.
Let America be America again.
Yes, Langston Hughes.
I, Too
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.
Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed-
I, too, am America.
Nothing is too bad when it comes to Leonard Cohen…except maybe that we don’t have him anymore.
My parents, naturalized citizens, never flew a flag at our house. They felt it was a form of jingoism. OTOH, they were scout leaders, Sunday school teachers, EMTs for the local ambulance squad and more.
Some of that overt patriotism feels pretty threatening sometimes. Inclusive it is not.
Conservative patriotism
Smells like jingoism to me.
American Patriotism, like American Evangelical Christianity, is all about the show. If you can talk the talk loudly enough, there is no obligation to walk the walk.
After all, who wants to walk when you can buy a big ass truck?
Or stand… “beside her and guide her.”