On this Memorial Day, it’s fitting and proper that we honor Americans who made the supreme sacrifice for this nation, and express our humble gratitude to them and to their survivors.
It is also fitting and proper that we confirm what it is they sacrificed for, and why their sacrifices were and still are worth it.
They sacrificed for a set of ideals enshrined in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and echoed in Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. That no person is above the law. That everyone should have an equal chance to make it in America. That democracy is a system of self-government — of, by, and for the people.
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This is the last Memorial Day before these ideals will be tested in the election of 2024, less than six months from now.
If we lose these ideals — if we succumb to despotism — future generations may never learn what occurred, because despots rewrite history to suit their own warped version.
Donald Trump and his supporters are already trying to rewrite the history of the election of 2020 and what occurred in the weeks and months following. An astounding number of Americans believe his Big Lie. A dismaying number of Republican lawmakers are willing to accept and repeat the lie in order to remain in office or gain office.
Trump and his supporters are trying to redefine patriotism as white Christian nationalism. But the true meaning of patriotism is the opposite.
America’s moral mission has been toward greater inclusion — providing equal rights to women, Black people, immigrants, Native Americans, Latinos, LGBTQ+, Muslim, Jewish, atheist, and agnostic.
True patriots don’t fuel racist, religious, or ethnic divisions. Patriots aren’t homophobic or sexist.
Nor are patriots blind to social injustices — whether ongoing or embedded in American history. They don’t ban books or prevent teaching about the sins of the nation’s past.
True patriots don’t have to express patriotism in symbolic displays of loyalty like standing for the national anthem and waving the American flag.
They express patriotism in taking a fair share of the burdens of keeping the nation going — sacrificing for the common good.
They pay taxes in full rather than lobby for lower taxes or seek tax loopholes or squirrel away money abroad.
They refrain from making large political contributions that corrupt American democracy.
They blow the whistle on abuses of power, even at the risk of losing their job.
They volunteer time and energy to improving their community and country.
They do not spread baseless claims that millions of people vote fraudulently. Or pass laws — based on the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen — that make it harder for people to vote .
Their patriotism lies instead in strengthening democracy — defending the right to vote and ensuring more Americans are heard.
Patriots understand that when they serve the public, their responsibility is to build public trust in the institutions of democracy.
They don’t put loyalty to their political party above their love of America. They don’t support an attempted coup.
They don’t try to hold onto power after voters have chosen not to reelect them. They don’t make money off their offices.
When serving as judges or justices, they recuse themselves from cases where they may appear to have a conflict of interest. They don’t fly flags signaling agreement with Trump that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
America’s challenge is not as described by Trump and his white Christian nationalist followers — that the nation is losing its whiteness or dominant religion, that too many foreigners are crossing our borders, that boys are competing in girl’s sports and failing to use bathrooms consistent with their gender at birth, or that teachers are failing to celebrate the nation’s history.
No. America’s challenge is to remind Americans of the sacrifices that real patriotism requires.
Happy Memorial Day.
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Robert Reich is a professor at Berkeley and was secretary of labor under Bill Clinton. You can find his writing at https://robertreich.substack.com/.
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