Thumping the Chest Does Not A Patriot Make...

...But the progressive and the reformer have a problem with what passes for unadulterated patriotism. By nature, the reformer is bound to insist that the country, however glorious, is not a perfect place, that it is capable of doing wrong as well as right. The nation that declared "all men are created equal" was, at the time those words were written, the home of an extensive system of slavery.

Most reformers guard their patriotic credentials by moving quickly to the next logical step: that the true genius of America has always been its capacity for self-correction. I'd assert that this is a better argument for patriotism than any effort to pretend that the Almighty has marked us as the world's first flawless nation.

Do we make mistakes? Sure. Is this still the best country to live in? Yes, if we can keep it that way.Read the whole E.J. Dionne article for an excellent summary of what it really means to be a patriot.