By SUZANNE DOWNING
May 31, 2026 – Patriotism isn’t the problem the Left wants you to think it is. The people sneering at patriotism are.
Here they go again — just as America approaches its 250th birthday as a constitutional republic, America’s credential-class elitists are once again throwing shade on patriotism. How very Davos of them.
The latest example comes from The New Yorker, which devoted space in its June 1 issue to an essay by Arthur Krystal titled “How Problematic Is Patriotism? National pride in America has plummeted in the Trump era. Is it worth trying to salvage?”
The piece is not so much an argument but rather a slog through an ambivalent sigh. The author winds on and on as one who wants to explain why he can’t quite bring himself to say, ‘I love my country.’
Krystal wanders through personal bad memories, philosophical reflections, narrow historical observations, and cultural anxieties before arriving at a Marxist-inspired conclusion: Patriotism is apparently complicated, maybe even embarrassing, and just not cool. Perhaps Americans should settle for merely being glad their country exists.
Uh, that’s the New York version of “inspiring.”
The timing is what stands out, published just after Memorial Day and barely before the United States marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence launched the greatest experiment in self-government the world has ever known.
Of all the moments to question the value of patriotism, this seems like an odd one.
Grownups know America is not perfect. No serious patriot has ever claimed it is. Patriotism does not require blindness or require pretending slavery never existed, or that Jim Crow never happened, or that America has never made mistakes.
What makes America exceptional is not that it was born perfect. What makes America exceptional is that it confronted its imperfections and corrected them. And keeps correcting them.
America ended slavery, dismantled Jim Crow, expanded civil rights, religious liberty, and economic opportunity to more people than any society in human history.
These achievements happened because Americans loved it enough to make it better, a distinction that seems lost on modern intellectuals.
Krystal says patriotism is no longer cool. Well, in elite circles he runs in, patriotism has, indeed, become unfashionable. It is easier to celebrate America’s failures than its successes. Easier to focus on historical sins than historical achievements. Easier to treat the American flag as a symbol of oppression than a symbol of liberty.
For decades, Americans have been subjected to a steady stream of academic and cultural messaging that teaches them to view their country primarily through the lens of its shortcomings. Schoolchildren are taught what America did wrong. Increasingly, they are taught less about what America did right.
The result is exactly what Gallup surveys now show: declining national pride.
Even though it’s Gallup, it should alarm us. A nation cannot survive indefinitely if its citizens are taught in public schools and universities to be ashamed of it.
Critics like Krystal insist they are not attacking America itself, merely encouraging a more nuanced understanding of its history. Call it nuanced, but it borders on contempt.
The farmer in Iowa flying an American flag is not demanding world conquest. The veteran standing for the national anthem is not plotting authoritarian rule. The family displaying patriotic decorations on the Fourth of July is not endorsing every mistake ever made by every American government.
They are expressing gratitude for liberty and the rule of law. Gratitude for freedoms that billions of people throughout history never enjoyed, for a system that allows criticism, dissent, elections, religious liberty, property rights, and yes, the free speech that allows the Krystals of the world a megaphone.
What is truly problematic is the growing inability of America’s opinion-making class to say, without qualification or embarrassment, that this country is a force for good in the world.
As the semiquincentennial approaches, Americans should reject the smarmy invitation to cynicism.
Celebrate the nation’s triumphs. Acknowledge its failures. Learn from its mistakes. But do not apologize for loving your country.
Two hundred fifty years after its founding, America remains the most successful experiment in liberty ever attempted.
That is something worth celebrating. As for The New Yorker, not worth celebrating.
Suzanne Downing is founder and editor of The Alaska Story and is a longtime Alaskan.
8 thoughts on “Suzanne Downing: Patriotism is not cool, or so says a New York essayist”
Reality is something a little bit different than Downing’s attempt to make you sniffle. Too bad. I’d prefer her false summary of American values than the systemic corruption we all face.
Singhy, why don’t you do all of us a favor and move to New York. Bye bye.
Dennis: Alaska is my home. I wasn’t born here, but I’ll die here. I’ve been a patriot all my adult life. I’ve waged battles, worked behind the scenes, created and staffed non-profits all in an attempt to make life better in my little jerkwater town. I’ve GIVEN more than I’ve TAKEN.
That I detest the corruption, theft, lies, incompetence and illegality of the Felon Trump administration, and that I’m doing what I can to protest it, is evidence of my love and commitment to America – my patriotism.
How about you Dennis, do you consider yourself a patriot?
MOST CERTINLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lived off other people’s tax money to further the communist cause. You’re a legend in your own mind…….
Lived off other people’s tax money to further the communist cause. You’re a legend in your own mind…….
Its someone from NY. Their view of the US and theworld ends at the river. They don’t even believe anything but NY City exists or has any value, other than what they can TAKE from it, by hook, or crook, mostly crook
I attended the celebration of America’s 250th at Willow yesterday, as a member of The Willow Baseball Band.
The MC walked through the crowd, asking for volunteers to because the opposing team failed to show. I stepped up, because my instrument had double coverage. Then the MC asked me if I could carry the American flag. I agreed, then I went over the procedures and protocols of color guard duty. In short: “hold the flag straight-up so it flies in the wind, when the anthem is sung, dip the flag forward.” I was never so proud.
Looking through the crowd, I noticed many people standing, hands by their sides. Do they know you are supposed to place your right hand over your heart, and if you are wearing a hat, take off your hat and place it over your heart with your right hand?
I think they know, if not, pretty pathetic. The American flag is a big deal.
On a lighter note, played second base, 1 for four, grounded out twice, walked once. We won. What a day, color guard base ball, ate a hot dog.
America, I love it.