Our Founders Demanded That We Resist
Patriotism is many things, but it’s not in merely waving (or hugging) the flag.
How are you feeling on this 4th of July, this American Independence Day? Judging from my social media timeline and conversations with friends, it seems no-one in my sphere is feeling too great. Over the last week, I’ve heard and read statements like: “How can anyone wanna celebrate this year’s 4th of July?” “Should we just cancel the 4th until Trump’s outta office?” and, most insidiously, “I’m REALLY not feeling patriotic this year.” It’s been heartbreaking to realize that we’ve allowed the meaning, practice, and power of American patriotism to be questioned and stolen by those who appreciate it least.
Twenty years ago today, I was undergoing one of the most exacting training processes of the U.S. Military to become a member of the U.S. Navy Presidential Honor Guard in Washington D.C. Our motto in the Ceremonial Guard was, “We represent the Navy to the Nation and the Nation to the World.” It doesn’t get too much more patriotic, in the accepted sense, than carrying out that sacred and time honored responsibility. Today, two decades later, I find myself having spent the last 16 months vocally and publicly in the midst of activism with the Resistance against Donald Trump and his ideology. I consider this fundamental endeavor and our ongoing resistance work today just as, if not more, patriotic than my time in the military. And if you’re standing up to Trumpism, you should too.
We cannot afford to lose sight of what true American patriotism demands of us. It demands a lot, and it’s not what Trumpists want us to believe. When the MAGA Cult, or bigots in general, wrap themselves in our flag it doesn’t make them patriots, it makes them hypocrites. They’ve shown their willingness to forsake our sacrosanct founding tenets, our national security, and our unique responsibility to the World, in order to promote their hate filled and treacherous ideology of isolationism, bigotry, and blind authoritarianism. They are not Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, or Independents — they’re the henchmen and collaborators of a slick mobster who through coercion, corruption, and collusion slithered his way into the Oval Office.
Yet, at what should be the height of their revelry over the con they’ve pulled, they are becoming enraged and muddled by the Resistance and in their discovery that our Founders planned for this actuality; and this is what our Independence Day, this year more than any other, must reflect — Our revolutionary activism, our RESISTANCE in the fight for the very soul of our Nation.
It’s a heritage handed down to us from our fore-bearers. Epitomized in the film, The American President: “America isn’t easy, it’s advanced citizenship, you’ve gotta want it bad because it’s gonna put up a fight…” (h/t President Andrew Shepherd). America isn’t waving the flag, claiming you support our troops, while blindly supporting a corrupt president whose policies would snatch away healthcare for millions of veterans. American patriotism isn’t supporting a draft dodging president who demonizes immigrants when it is often those very immigrants, like Marcelino Serna, an undocumented Mexican immigrant who became the most decorated WWI veteran from Texas, who serve this nation with every fiber of their being. In fact, many immigrants have given their lives for this intangible ideal we call patriotism, which is really all about hope. The very core of American patriotism is within the fragile hope inside the hearts of people like Marcelino, striving for a better life.
To protect American patriotism means to constantly question authority, it means marching in the streets, it means NOT accepting the status quo, it is the belief that we are an ever evolving people who in our righteous might must always strive for equality and the betterment of the lives of our fellow human beings. Patriotism is fighting for the inherent sanctity of each individual person and their inalienable rights. It’s showing up at airports to let elected representatives know we do not accept our government abdicating it’s moral responsibilities to our citizens. It’s rejecting hatred and violence against religious and ethnic minorities, and standing united. Patriotism is many things, but it’s not in merely waving (or hugging) the flag. Over the last two years, in the wake of Trumpism, the real American patriots have stepped up, the journalists, the moms, dads, veterans, doctors, lawyers, teachers, and all who’ve fought for something we inherently feel within our bones to be true about our nation; the hope that we’re a good people, that our goodness rests in our diversity, that we must help each other, and that Trump’s vision for America is un-American. It’s only been because of our voices and our actions that the MAGA Cult has been stopped cold, thus far.
Today, the depth of Independence Day bears a much more serious, sacred, and relevant value than we ever expected in our lifetime. We will never concede patriotism to tyrants, we will not be dissuaded in our belief that America is a place for ALL — We will take up the shield of our founding tenets and carry in our hearts, now strengthened, the eternal words: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Let your hope in our Resistance ring out loud today and let’s show them what patriotism really means.
