President Donald Trump, as you undoubtedly know, constantly reveals fissures in the American public. He has shown, time and again, where the faults and cracks run through our shared ideologies — where they break, at times being separated by wide chasms, and where they meet.
Your personal political position on the U.S. and how we should go forward in the age of Trump reveals one thing more important than most: whether you are a nationalist or a patriot.
The distinction between the two is huge. When you hear about someone wearing American flag pants or praising the Constitution, you might conflate the two and say that person is being patriotic, or synonymously to the uneducated mind, displaying nationalist sentiments.
The glaring distinction lies in their connotation. If you look up each in the dictionary, you’ll find they are, in fact, synonyms. The definition of nationalism even includes the word “patriotic.” However, whereas the example sentence for patriotism touts a military officer of unquestionable integrity, the example sentence for nationalism invokes extremism and fear.
Google reveals that use over time for the word nationalism soared throughout World War II. That was a time when countries practicing extremism (and I mean old school extremism, like world domination, Pearl Harbor extremism) were world powers.
There is a more concrete litmus test if you’re wondering whether you are a nationalist or a patriot — whether you believe the U.S. is better than everyone else. Again, I’m not trying to say that you’re a nationalist because you think apple pie and baseball are the best pastimes.
I’m asking you to ask yourself: “Do I think American culture is better than other cultures?” Not whether you like it better, but whether the American way is the undisputed right way. I’m looking at you, Young Americans for Freedom.
Being patriotic, by contrast, is a lot more nuanced. As a patriot, you get to wear your flag pants and carry around a pocket-sized copy of the Constitution, but you can recognize that the U.S. is imperfect and has a troubled past. You can hear the screams at the border when we separate children from their parents, and you don’t write that suffering off just because the children are Mexican and not American.
A patriot can recognize where we have failed as a country, where a nationalist cannot. A patriot can use our gray history to tell us about a brilliant future, where a nationalist cannot. A patriot can explore diverse places in both empathy and time, where a nationalist is chained to their backyard. A patriot can see and fix wounds, where a nationalist is blind and widens the sore.
As you, like the rest of us savvy know-it-all college students, participate fervently in the American democracy, ask yourself whether you’re voting for nationalists or patriots. The fate of our great country depends on it.
Stephan Chamberlin is a UF political science junior. His column comes out Tuesday and Thursday.
