The Nation comes clean about the left-wing heritage of many of the popular patriotic observances and rituals in American culture. And they’re proud of that fact.
Most Americans are unaware that much of our patriotic culture–including many of the leading icons and symbols of American identity–was created by artists and writers of decidedly left-wing and even socialist sympathies. A look at the songs sung at post-9/11 patriotic tribute events and that appear on the various patriotic compilation albums, or the clips incorporated into film shorts celebrating the “American spirit,” reveals that the preponderance of these originated in the forgotten tradition of left-wing patriotism.
The article examines the Pledge of Allegiance (not only written by Christian socialist Francis Bellamy, but also intended “to express a more collective and egalitarian vision of America” by supporting public education and inculcating a social vision greater than individualism and capitalism), songs like “America the Beautiful” (originally an anti-imperialist poem as well as an “appeal for social justice rather than the pursuit of wealth”), “This Land is Your Land,” and the schmaltzy “The House That I Live In” (a hit by Frank Sinatra in 1945), and examines their “progressive” and “leftist” roots, as well as their subsequent adoption in one form or another by conservative nationalists.
None of this is news to faithful LRC readers, and the collectivist pedigrees of many of the rituals of America’s patriotic liturgy has been documented here.
But as I said, the authors of The Nation piece are proud of this. They believe that leftists and “progressives” should embrace these symbols as their own.
The progressive authors of much of America’s patriotic iconography rejected blind nationalism, militaristic drumbeating and sheeplike conformism. So it would be a dire mistake to allow, by default, jingoism to become synonymous with patriotism and the American spirit. Throughout our nation’s history, radicals and reformers have viewed their movements as profoundly patriotic. They have believed that America’s core claims–fairness, equality, freedom, justice–were their own.
This is simply a lie. Patriotism and nationalism, whether “progressive” or “conservative,” for whatever reason is pledges allegiance and sings nationalistic songs, or whether it seeks “peace and justice” or the expansion of “freedom and democracy” through war and conquest, IS by its very nature “sheeplike conformism.” Why else would Bellamy support state schooling, and demand all children say the pledge at the same time? Why produce these cultural artifacts at all unless one wanted to create some kind of conformity of thought and belief?
9:45 am on July 4, 2007
