Internal Patriotism Re-Visited
Donald Trump recently said something like, danger to America is within. Unbelievable. Below is an old blog 21 August about internal patriotism.
We tend to think patriotism is outward, fighting in foreign wars to defend a country’s interest. I think it’s more than that. Surely, it must begin at home, as the English proverb puts it: charity begins at home.
Let’s call it internal patriotism, but it might be flawed. We see it during sensitive debates like immigration. We hear sentiments like keep them out, we don’t want them to ruin the Canadian or American way of life. That is rich, coming from all of us, older immigrants. It’s a matter of when you arrived in these two countries. Australia and New Zealand are also immigrant based.
Quite frankly, we don’t think about internal patriotism, what we can for the structures that form the country. The only thing we do is pay tax, and the government does that by force. We wouldn’t give it a dollar, if it was voluntary. We might not like the government but we never think of violently pulling it to the ground. Donald Trump did in 2020 when he refused to concede defeat. He went on to orchestrate the subsequent unbelievable, but real attempted coup d’ etat, on 6 January 2021.
Love for country, internal patriotism never crossed his mind which is ironic coming from a former president who vowed to Make America Great Again. There is the personal, then there is what we can call the ecosystem, of the entity called a country. I don’t want to say government because that would bring in politics. There are structures that work like an awning, to shield the ecosystem from the sun and rain, so that citizens can exercise personal decisions, like running for U.S. President.
Trump brought down the whole edifice, because he has never and will never have love for country.
By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.
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