Is patriotism bad? Should the United States maintain its pro-America stance (sovereignty) or embrace globalization?

SSG Pete Fleming — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 12:51:25 -0400

Merle Haggard - The Fightin Side Of Me (Live)

Music video by Merle Haggard performing The Fightin Side Of Me (Live).

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 4 at 2016 12:59 PM

LTC Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 12:59:24 -0400

Patriotism is a delicate thing. Too little and the country falls apart. Too much and the country is nice and strong, but becomes a very disgusting place.

Response by SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth made Jun 4 at 2016 12:59 PM

SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 12:59:25 -0400

Sovereignty.

Response by SrA Edward Vong made Jun 4 at 2016 1:08 PM

SrA Edward Vong — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 13:08:46 -0400

I am proud to be an American, but I am not patriotic. It is where I am born and raised and where I made my achievements. There are some aspects of the country that I do not like, and there are some that I love. To me, it is a place I can call home.

Response by Capt Seid Waddell made Jun 4 at 2016 1:09 PM

Capt Seid Waddell — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 13:09:07 -0400

Patriotism is only un-American on college campuses in recent decades.

Response by MSG Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 4 at 2016 1:14 PM

MSG Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 13:14:24 -0400

Self-love ... is not so vile a sin as self-neglecting.
Henry V, Act 2, Scene 3

Response by SrA Charles Godin made Jun 4 at 2016 1:18 PM

SrA Charles Godin — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 13:18:58 -0400

No, patriotism isn't bad or wrong. No country or it's people are perfect but there is nothing inherently wrong in voicing you pride in being a citizen. HOW you voice that pride can either rally others to agree or poison people against us.

Response by 1LT Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 4 at 2016 1:38 PM

1LT Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 13:38:33 -0400

SSG Pete Fleming - What kind of naive question is this? Everyone else wants what we have had for 200 years - a huge country with enormous resources and no tax or other restriction on people and/or property moving across state lines - with exceeding limited exceptions - e.g. limits on Interstate transport of women for immortal purposes. Warmest Regards, Sandy

Response by Sgt Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 4 at 2016 1:52 PM

Sgt Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 13:52:05 -0400

Patriotism is good and necessary for a strong nation. Any other questions?

Response by SSgt Christopher Brose made Jun 4 at 2016 1:59 PM

SSgt Christopher Brose — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 13:59:39 -0400

The primary responsibility of any government is to look out for its own citizens and interests. Every other country seems to have a pretty good grasp on that concept, but for some reason, a lot of Americans struggle with it.

Response by Alan K. made Jun 4 at 2016 2:04 PM

Alan K. — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 14:04:26 -0400

Is Patriotism bad? Hell no!...Should America maintain it's sovereignty? Hell yeah" I believe we have already embraced globalism to some degree and how did that work out for US? Just look at the real stats on this Country's #'s not the Unicorn stats the Administration puts out.

Response by SPC Dawud Makonnen made Jun 4 at 2016 2:08 PM

SPC Dawud Makonnen — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 14:08:16 -0400

Is there really a choice? Perhaps some of our challenges stem from old thinking. Life is linear not stagnant really think it's time to move forward in our way of being.

Response by CPT Jack Durish made Jun 4 at 2016 2:54 PM

CPT Jack Durish — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 14:54:35 -0400

I've looked at globalization and it scares the hell out of me. Globalization by necessity infers homogenization of government. Keep in mind that the United States is the only nation in all of history wherein the people are sovereign and grant limited rights to the government. Now, I'm sure someone is going to argue, that's a ridiculous statement. Other nations are free. The peoples of other nations have rights. Then they'll point to Great Britain. It too has a Bill of Rights, they'll argue. And in advancing those arguments they will only prove their ignorance. Now, before you go off on a rant, I'm not using "ignorance" as a pejorative. We're all ignorant about lots of things. That includes me. Don't come to me for medical advice or to solve a problem in quantum mechanics. But, if you want to know about rights, I can help. In every other nation, including Great Britain, rights are given to the people by the sovereign (a monarch, a Parliament, whomever). Such rights can be taken away just as easily as they are given (and historically, they have been taken away frequently under the pretext of national need). Others will argue that Americans have lost rights, especially in the past 100+ years that the progressive movement has been inching the nation to the left. However, they too are wrong. No one took away our rights. We simply surrendered them whenever we were lured by the progressives to surrender responsibility to them. What most people missed was the fact that rights and responsibilities are irrevocably linked. For example, when we relinquished responsibility for healthcare to the government, freedom of choice went with it. The govt can now force us to make contracts we don't want.

Now imagine how our government would change under globalization. Do you think that everyone would want to be exactly like us and adopt the US Constitution? Of course not. They'd each have their own favorite system to promote and I don't want any part of them. How about you?

Response by CPT Joseph K Murdock made Jun 4 at 2016 2:59 PM

CPT Joseph K Murdock — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 14:59:52 -0400

We go to war too often because we are the sole Western global power, we feel it's our role to use imperial powers, or to defend this country. If we want to see true globalization, make our allies build up militaries.

Response by SFC Everett Oliver made Jun 4 at 2016 3:07 PM

SFC Everett Oliver — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 15:07:12 -0400

American born, American Bred. And American I'll remain...

Response by MSG Jay Jackson made Jun 4 at 2016 3:46 PM

MSG Jay Jackson — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 15:46:03 -0400

To me being a patriot means supporting your country when she is right and putting her right when she is wrong.

Response by SPC Nathan Freeman made Jun 4 at 2016 4:56 PM

SPC Nathan Freeman — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 16:56:14 -0400

We can't maintain exceptionalism by being like every one else. We should trade with other nations while not repeating their economical and social mistakes

Response by SPC Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 4 at 2016 5:22 PM

SPC Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 17:22:35 -0400

Patriotism is an outstanding phenomenon that drives this country and keeps me doing what I do every day. And to quote the great Kenny Powers: " I honestly just feel that America is the best country and the other countries aren't as good. That used to be called patriotism"

Response by SPC(P) Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 4 at 2016 8:23 PM

SPC(P) Private RallyPoint Member — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 20:23:18 -0400

This is something that many people (in today's world) are fairly misinformed on. Nationalism is often looked at as the "cause" of Hitler and the Nazi movement, but that thought is very misguided. Nationalism is what made the United States capable of surviving as a melting pot, which at the time was an impossible feat. The leading cause of all wars and conflict are multiple nations (in the correct sense of the term) coinciding within one state. Whether they be the Tutsi and the Hutu, the Nazi's and the Jews, or the Muslims, Hindus and Sikh, multiple nations have historically failed miserably at coinciding within the same state borders. The United States was a shining example of the importance of Nationalism for the survival of a multi-cultural state. Because for the most part, despite several notable failures, the United States survived despite the many origins of its inhabitants because they all, after the defeat of Britain, found common ground in the shared self-identity as Americans.

The destruction of this sense of Nationalism in America and the rise of the hyphen culture, could quite easily be directly correlated with the rising racial divides, and animosity between Americans. We no longer all self-identify primarily as American, and in fact, many no longer even take pride in being American. This results in the formation of a multi-national state instead of one large nation-state i.e. Yankees and Rebels. People congregate with people who share their sense of self-identities, and form several sub-groups which then view the other nations as rival nations or enemy nations at its worst. The result is increased tensions and animosity between races, religions, sexes, etc. based on the perceptions of victimhood between them... just my two cents

Response by SGT Philip Roncari made Jun 4 at 2016 8:41 PM

SGT Philip Roncari — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 20:41:57 -0400

"My Country right or wrong but my Country" don't know if I got the quote right but it's what I believe!

Response by Cpl Mark A. Morris made Jun 4 at 2016 9:25 PM

Cpl Mark A. Morris — Sat, 04 Jun 2016 21:25:27 -0400

Good evening,

The American middle class has been murdered for the birth of Globalization using NAFTA and GATT. It's called the New Age.

In it, the State will be a god and more centralized. You will not have private property as you know it and issues that lack common sense, like can a man use the bathroom with my wife and daughter, will become the norm.

Now, can I please have my Grumpy Cat. It's been a couple of days.

Mark A. Morris BS, RDMS, RVT

Response by Cpl Chris Rice made Jun 5 at 2016 3:59 AM

Cpl Chris Rice — Sun, 05 Jun 2016 03:59:04 -0400

I think you’re conflating patriotism, and nationalism. Patriotism seems to be the expression of affection towards your country and its way of life, while nationalism is a belief in the superiority or supremacy of your national identity. Globalization would threaten nationalism as it may change the national identity, however after a transition to globalization it is a personal decision whether or not you would still have love and affection for this country.

An example of this would be that I love my parents, I do not agree with every decision that they’ve made, they are imperfect, and they may not even be the best parents, but they are my parents. A more nationalist type view would be that I have the best parents, everybody’s parents should be like my parents and if they are not then they are wrong, and if something went wrong with their parenting it was because of some outside force was sabotaging them. I think the patriotism is a good thing, and national pride that borders on being a little bit nationalist is good as well. However, nationalism has the ability to go in a really ugly direction.

As far as the question of globalization, the issue isn’t whether or not we will accept globalization, because we already have. In fact, the United States has been well tied into the global economy, and the migration of people since its founding. In 1929 the US economy fell apart, and went into the Great Depression, it also caused a great deal of the world to go into a depression as well. This is why in the following presidential race FDR who is considered to have had some fairly extreme ideas was elected by a fairly desperate American electorate, and in Germany the same year Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor due to his very large and vocal public support for his extreme ideas. Luckily in the United States we have a stronger bond with our Constitution, and we elected a socialist instead of a fascist.

So in the United States there was a great practice of patriotism in us asking what we need to improve about ourselves to get through this depression, and being willing to decide that we are responsible for our own situation. While in Germany with Nationalist Zeal the decision was to find somebody to scapegoat, and ultimately victimize under the excuse that if we remove all of the Jews, Communists, Social Democrats, and Homosexuals you can get your job back.