Constitutional Patriotism

by Jim Greer

LW contributor

During the summer lockdown, I found myself watching “Hamilton,” the Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda. I admit when it first appeared in 2015, I had little interest in the mixed-musical-genre play. But as I had the opportunity of streaming it at home for the first time, I watched, captivated by its message.

In a touching scene, George Washington explains to Alexander Hamilton why he cannot seek re-election. Washington explains, “I want to warn against partisan fighting. If I say goodbye, the nation learns to move on. It outlives me when I’m gone. Like the scripture says: Everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid. They’ll be safe in the nation we’ve made.”

Washington had confidence that this nation would be safe, so long as we adhered to the groundwork the founding fathers had laid. The founders hoped that all Americans could set aside partisanship and dwell peacefully together.

In a multi-cultural society, it is challenging to embrace diversity while building national unity. And yet, this was the founders’ dream —to ensure equality while protecting inalienable rights granted by providence. Novelist Marilynne Robinson suggests, “Human beings are sacred, therefore equal. We are asked to see one another in the light of a singular inalienable worth that would make a family of us if we let it.”

America built its economy, politics, even its sports teams on the combative concept of competition. We join teams, wear our team uniforms, and fight fiercely for victory. But in our national contests, we must remember that the opposing team is composed of our brothers and sisters. And, if we are not careful, we will discover that “every city or house divided against itself will not stand.”

American jurist, educator and religious leader Dallin H. Oaks recently stated, “Though Jesus’s teachings were revolutionary, he did not teach revolution or lawbreaking. In a democratic society, we always have the opportunity and the duty to persist peacefully until the next election.”

Persisting peacefully through election cycles requires that we protect and defend every citizen’s right to vote. To do otherwise, through threats, intimidation or voting suppression, is unlawful and immoral. In the October 2018 issue of The Atlantic, Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld noted that “for all its flaws, the United States is uniquely equipped to unite a diverse and divided society. Its citizens don’t have to choose between a national identity and multiculturalism. Americans can have both. But the key is constitutional patriotism. We have to remain united by and through the Constitution, regardless of our ideological disagreements.”

Constitutional patriots are not defined by political party, religious affiliation or racial heritage. Patriots persist patiently, working within established law to bring peaceful change that benefits all Americans. George Washington warned of the dangers of extreme partisanship in his farewell address. He cautioned us that such bias fosters a “spirit of revenge.” That spirit permits “cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men” to “usurp for themselves the reins of government; destroying afterwards the very engines, which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”

While we don our team colors and support our candidates and causes, let us do so without instilling enmity. In celebrating our differences, let us continue to peacefully and collectively hold the reins of government.

By recognizing that differences are inherent in American society, we acknowledge, as John F. Kennedy did, that “if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.”