[This piece is running as an op/ed in newspapers in the very red congressional district (VA-06) in which I ran as the Democratic nominee for Congress in 2012. It is appearing under the title,
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Grieving the Loss of Patriotic Pride
I grew up feeling deep patriotic pride.
So it is painful – the pain of embarrassment and shame -- when I think of how we look to those peoples of the world who have long been our friends, to the nations to whom generations of Americans have proudly looked to affirm the overall noble nature of ourselves as a nation.
We have taken pride in how the world’s most decent nations have regarded us as “the leader of the free world.”
That pride was an important part of my American patriotism when I was a boy. When President Eisenhower traveled to other countries, and was greeted by huge throngs of people lining the streets -- hailing not only the American President, but also the heroic nation that had recent heroically saved the world from the forces of darkness – I was proud to be an American.
When I went abroad in the mid-60s, even though the Vietnam war had somewhat dimmed the enthusiasm of our friends in that “free world,” I found that people in nations of Western Europe still had feelings of admiration toward America from that time. And gratitude for the protective role we still played in protecting them from the Soviet Union, which had forced the nations of Eastern Europe into subservience.
The American alliance – NATO -- was not forced onto anybody. Our friends joined with us because – even if we have not always behaved well – America has played an essential role in establishing good rules to govern the international order and in protecting the world from evil powers.
But now? Now our long-time friends in the world see us as ugly-- ugly because Donald Trump has become the Face of America again, and because Trump has been going out of his way to antagonize our friends:
For no good reason, Trump insulted the Canadians, belittling them as “the 51st state,” and referring to the Canadian head of state as “Governor.” (Not to mention the needless and illegal threat to impose tariffs on our northern neighbors.)
The Canadians are furious. Their leaders responded with anger and contempt. The crowds at sporting events have booed the American national anthem.
Those provocations are indicative of the changed spirit of America on the world stage. The American President is deliberately replacing our long-standing positive bonds with our long-time friend with antagonism (and some fear).
(And can anyone provide a constructive reason for Trump dissing our southern neighbor by rejecting the long-established name for the “Gulf of Mexico”?)
That same impulse to poison good relationships seems evident in the way Trump has threatened Denmark – our NATO ally! -- with a specter of force while demanding that the Danes hand over a piece of their long-held territory (Greenland).
Americans could be justly proud of our having formed NATO, to protect a community of freedom-loving nations from the Soviet Union, with its immoral ways of “might-makes-right.” But with Trump, the mighty United States has itself become the bully.
Hardly a “leader of the free world.” On the contrary, our friends see the United States looking more and more like the kind of predator from which the U.S. had long been their protector.
And the signs are that – regarding the Ukraine war – Trump intends to help the cruel aggressor against Putin’s innocent victim.
That spirit of “the strong do what they can, while the weak suffer what they must” has been the main source of the ugliness that’s plagued the history of civilization. It’s a spirit that’s the opposite of “do unto others as you would have others do unto you,” and has enabled the ugliest of human possibilities (Hitler, Stalin, Putin and now Trump) to empower a Force of Destruction.
A good leader sees power as about service. Trump has explicitly said he sees power as about fear.
Fear is the way of the bully. So Trump bullies our nation’s friends, making us ugly in the eyes of the world, where we had been beautiful before.
That previous American beauty was an important part of my feeling good in the world. It fed my heart to be part of something that played some important and constructive roles in the world, and was esteemed by world’s best nations.
Now I grieve the way that pride must turn into embarrassment as my country has become ugly in the eyes of our old friends.
Sometimes I wish that -- if we had to have such a President as Donald Trump – he had been forced upon us by some foreign power.
(Like the way, during World War II, the Norwegians were forced to live under the Quisling government that was forced on them by the Nazis. Nobody blamed brave Norway for being compelled at gunpoint to live under a regime chosen by their enemies.)
But Trump was not forced on our America. He won a legitimate election.
And so the peoples who have been our friends for generations find us ugly not only because the Face of our nation is a man who embodies almost every character defect our traditions have always condemned.
But also because they see that the American people freely chose such a man. Chose Trump even after he’d shown in so many ways what kind of a man he was, and shown the kind of spirit he’d bring to the wielding of presidential power.