I heard Trump is saying he will start a new party and he wants to call it the Patriot Party. That has a ring to it doesn’t it? Yes I think it has the ring of fascism. Bill Maher said there was something “brown shirty” about it.

Oscar Wilde said “Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.”

Nesrine Malik, an astute observer of politics offered a

“rule of thumb: the more that “patriotism” is invoked by a country’s political elites, the less healthy its political culture will be. From McCarthyism in the US to the Chinese Cultural Revolution, the imperative to love one’s country has often been used as pretext for persecution and submission.”

I don’t have a problem with love of country. I love my country. But I don’t love it blindly. I reserve the right to criticize it when I think it has gone astray. I don’t want to sacrifice my critical judgment to love of country. I don’t believe in love of country right or wrong. I don’t like patriotism that has been weaponized. As Malik added,

“What has passed for patriotism for too long in this country is, in fact, chauvinism: an attitude that defines itself by who it excludes, rather than who it brings together…Sometimes loving your country involved kicking up a fuss. It means telling the uncomfortable truth about a government that is letting its people down.”

Malik was talking about her country—England. But it applies just as well to any country. Particularly to mine. And yours.

Sometimes patriotism really means fascism.