'Love it or leave': Analysis torches lazy MAGA view of 'patriotism'

19 June

President Donald Trump with Fox News' Laura Ingraham at the 2019 Student Action Summit hosted by Turning Point USA in Palm Beach, Florida on December 21, 2019 (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)

When President Donald Trump held a military/birthday parade in Washington, DC on Saturday, June 14 and over 2000 No Kings Day protests were held in opposition to it — including one in Philadelphia that, according to estimates, attracted 80,000 people — it wasn't hard to find right-wing media pundits who equated opposition to Trump and the parade with hating the United States.

Countless No Kings protesters, however, made it clear that their demonstrations, marches and rallies weren't anti-military or anti-U.S. — they were fine with honoring the military but viewed Trump's event as a crude exercise in self-promotion.

In a post on his Truth Social platform the following day, Trump posted, "These Radical Left Democrats are sick of mind, hate our Country, and actually want to destroy our Inner Cities — And they are doing a good job of it! There is something wrong with them. That is why they believe in Open Borders, Transgender for Everybody, and Men playing in Women’s Sports — And that is why I want ICE, Border Patrol, and our Great and Patriotic Law Enforcement Officers, to FOCUS on our crime ridden and deadly Inner Cities, and those places where Sanctuary Cities play such a big role. You don't hear about Sanctuary Cities in our Heartland!"

Similar arguments are repeatedly voiced on Fox News and other right-wing media outlets. But in an op-ed published on June 19, the Washington Post's Monica Hesse counters that conflating disdain for Trump with disdain for the United States is intellectually lazy — and a wrong-headed idea of "patriotism."

"Every time I flip on Fox News," Hesse explains, "a host or commentator is talking about how liberals hate America and the insult always takes a beat to register, because — who, me? I'm the dork who has a National Parks Passport to get stamped when I visit the Indiana Dunes. This has become a central political division in our country. The right accuses the left of hating the United States; the left responds that protest is American. But also, is Finland accepting expats right now?"

The Washington Post journalist continues, "There's no point to a stupid argument about whether you or I love America more than Trump or a bunch of Fox hosts do. I bet all of them love it, in their way. And, sweet Betsy Ross, we're already teetering toward this column turning into a third-place entry for an 8th Grade essay contest on democracy. But the point is that Trump's way obviously does not look like my way; there is something essential we are missing about one another's versions of either love or America."

The predictable "messaging" from Trump and Fox News, Hesse laments, comes down to "love it or leave."

"To be told that you hate America because you protest parts of it is to be told that love and worship are the same thing," Hesse writes. "But love is a dialogue, not a supplication…. Love America because leaving it is not an option for most of us and hating it isn't either. Creating it is an option. It's not only the best way to love America; it's the only option we have."

Monica Hesse's full Washington Post column is available at this link (subscription required).

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