单选题
America"s New Patriotism
Patriotism has always been the most abstract of American virtues—which may be why Americans fight so ferociously over the symbols that help define it. Too often those symbols—flags, anthems, slogans—which are meant to unite Americans, end up dividing them.
To many people, the meaning of patriotism is simple: love of country. But love of a country that is dedicated to a proposition, not a king or a religion—a nation that is based on ideas, not blood—has always created a different kind of citizen. America"s patriotism expresses itself most truly in actions, not words. Its patriotism shapes its people"s responsibilities as citizens, how they navigate in the world and, ultimately, what it means to be an American.
There is nothing more important that those ideals, and Americans are in the midst of a historic presidential race that will help redefine them for the 21st century. There have always been twin strains of patriotism in U. S. history, two different definitions of American exceptionalism: a sense that the country"s greatness is based on its
provenance
and what its people have achieved, and a belief that the greatness of America lies in its promise and how it attempts to live up to its ideals.
Conservatives and liberals have been arguing about these two strains for years, and that debate has become the pivot of U. S. politics. Republicans have contended that they are the true legatees of the nation"s heritage and attack Democrats for being ashamed of America. Democrats in turn depict Republicans as chest-thumping nationalists who prevent America from living up to its ideals.
Both of these are caricatures.
In Barack Obama, the first African-American presidential nominee, the mixed-race child of a single mother, the U. S. has a candidate whose perspective on—and experience of—America are different from those of any other nominee in history. In John McCain, Americans have the son and grandson of admirals who suffered grievously for his country and has spent his life as a public servant. To say that one of these represents the American Dream and the other does not is to set up a false choice. As they show in their own words on the following pages, both men embody the great traditions of American patriotism.
What the U.S. needs going forward is third-way patriotism, a new patriotism that blends the faith of its fathers with, as Abraham Lincoln said, the unfinished work remaining before the nation. That new patriotism, as Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer write in The True Patriot, means "appreciating not only what is great about our country but also what it takes to create and sustain greatness." That formulation is what this campaign should be about: defining America"s course in the 21st century. The candidates may have different views on what makes Americans proud to be Americans, but they share a belief in a modem American exceptionalism: that America has a greatness of purpose no other nation possesses, and that for all its achievements, its greatest tasks remain before its people. (
Time
, July 14, 2008)