A Response To Trump's "Make America Great Again" From Bertram Gross Written In 1980

I think I understand the kinds and roots of false patriotism today. Some years ago Francis W. Coker of Yale University put his finger on the divisive and exclusive patriots who “insist that the country must always be set above the rest of the world” and “in the name of patriotism conduct a virulent propaganda against economic and political measures of which they disapprove,” including the admission of “undesirable” foreigners but also the free expression of dissident views in schools, churches or the media. ¹³ In his Militarism, USA, a sober critique based on years of experience in the U.S. Marine Corps, Colonel James A. Donovan identifies the dangerous patriot: “the one who drifts into chauvinism and exhibits blind enthusiasm for military actions. He is a defender of militarism and its ideals of war and glory. Chauvinism is a proud and bellicose form of patriotism … which identifies numerous enemies who can only be dealt with through military power and which equates the national honor with military victory.” With an insider’s gift for telling detail, he relates this kind of dangerous patriotism to the vested interests of the “vast, expensive, and burgeoning military-industrial-scientific-political combine which dominates the country.” ¹⁴ In The Reason for Democracy, published after his death in 1976, Kalman Silvert of New York University provided another pungent description of false patriots: “People who wrap themselves in the flag and proclaim the sanctity of the nation are usually racists, contemptuous of the poor and dedicated to keeping the community of ‘ins’ small and pure of blood, spirit and mind.” ¹⁵ The people described by Coker, Donovan, and Silvert are the kind of scoundrels Samuel Johnson and Ambrose Bierce were referring to— and anyone acting in the spirit of true democracy should be prepared for opposition from them.

Gross, Bertram. Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America (Forbidden Bookshelf) (Kindle Locations 9150-9164). Open Road Media. Kindle Edition.

Holy Moly!