I never feel less patriotic than when attending sporting events. The fans are so eager to display their love of country before the game starts. I can feel their pride swelling, while I wish we could skip the preliminaries and go directly to the game.
Republicans put on a good show. They fly flags, wear flag pins, and are eager to stand for the pre-game national anthem. Some even wear t-shirts threatening to give a beatdown to anyone disrespecting their flag. Such men always drive pickup trucks. But to their credit, you’ll never hear Republicans talking like far-left Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who’s said the U.S. “is turning into one of the worst countries.” Omar, an immigrant from one of the worst countries on earth—Somalia—isn’t a patriot. Patriots don't want to tear down the entire American system in order to build a new one from the ground up.
Even patriotic Democrats are more sparing with their praise of the U.S than Republicans, especially with Trump in office. Much of the party’s progressive base still can't get over the nation's most hideous mistake, slavery, even though around 350,000 Union soldiers died to end it. Waving an American flag at this group is like waving a red flag at a bull. It's just one more reminder of all the ills that must be addressed before they could express any love for their country.
There are different ways to express love of one's country, but some Americans love America so much they'll hate other Americans for not loving the nation in the exact same way. MAGA types think they're patriotic shouting “U.S.A.!” but that sounds more like a rallying call for nationalism to me. I was surrounded by noisy “patriots” shouting this slogan once when I covered a Trump rally as a journalist. It made my skin crawl, and still does when I hear it.
I want to be a patriot, but there's one thing standing in the way: I fear my own nation too much. Fear and love don't go together. This nation sent men to Vietnam to die—or at least get messed up—in a war that, as the Pentagon Papers exposed, top American officials knew was unwinnable. Such depravity brought me to the uncomfortable realization that the nation I had to fear most was my own. Muhammad Ali put it this way after refusing to be sent to fight in Vietnam: “I ain't got no quarrel with the Viet Cong. No Viet Cong ever called me nigger.”
To me, waving a flag has always felt like saying, "I'm available to suit up for your next useless war!” So I choose to stand on the sidelines and observe all the rituals of patriotism rather than participating in them. If the federal government had drafted me to go to an unnecessary war—the Iraq war was another example—I wouldn’t have complied. I have one life, and I'm not giving it up for any D.C. anti-communist domino theorists or nation-building warmongers lying to Americans about Saddam Hussein’s nuclear threat.
My emotions while watching an NFL football game are a barometer of my patriotism. I feel nothing at all when the national anthem’s played at any sporting event. Why is it played at athletic contests, but not at other gatherings such as movies or concerts? What does a football game have to do with patriotism? It's not the Olympics. I only stand when the “Star Spangled Banner” is played because I don't want a confrontation with a “patriot” in the stands taking it as intentional disrespect for the U.S., which it wouldn't be in my case. I just don't like being forced to stand for the song.
The U.S. Navy and Air Force Jets flying over the stadium at NFL games don't give me the goosebumps, although I support American troops. What do these flyovers have to do with football? It's just another delay—a cynical marketing technique intended to use patriotism to sell military brand-building and the league's product, which it calls “America’s game.”
The definition of “patriotism” is in the eye of the beholder, just like being a “fan” of a team is. Let's not forget that “fan” is derived from “fanatic,” which is often what the noisy super-patriots who won't brook any criticism of the nation resemble. I'm a longtime, devoted fan of the San Francisco 49ers who never misses their games, even when traveling abroad. In the middle of writing this, I expressed a negative opinion on Twitter about the team’s current field goal kicker, Jake Moody. Someone I've never heard of started berating me just because he likes the kicker. We both have the team's best interests in mind, yet he's at my throat. That fan reminds me of the performative MAGA patriots who are now calling Democrats they disagree with “treasonous.”
Being a patriot has many things in common with being religious, something I've also given up. Faith doesn't come naturally to me, however it's packaged.