How should a liberal feel about her country?
From his gilded podium at the White House’s Salute to America 250 event, President Trump spoke about America being the “crowning achievement of human history” and “the most extraordinary, most exceptional, most incredible nation ever to exist on the face of the Earth.”
Oh, and if you didn’t know, “We’re doing better now than we’ve ever done before.”
For a liberal like me, I think there are two natural reactions to Trump’s jingoistic rhetoric. One is to turn away. The other is to confront it head on: to reclaim patriotism by reframing it.
Here at the Globe, I produce and cohost the “Say More” podcast. And over the last few months, I developed a three-part series called “Patriotism Is a Verb.” The idea was to focus on a range of actions — from traveling to protesting to voting and reading history — that would help a liberal like me foster a love of country.
My first visit was with Beverly Gage, a Yale University historian whose new book, “This Land Is Your Land,” recounts a year she spent road-tripping around the country, visiting historic sites in preparation for the country’s 250th anniversary.
“Whether or not people on the left like patriotism, it exists, and it’s a powerful, powerful force,” she told me when I visited her home in Connecticut for an interview. “To step aside, roll your eyes, to disengage, is not only, I think, a disservice to the people of the past but is also to concede a lot of things that I don’t think people on the left or liberals should concede to — that America is this one thing.”
After speaking with Gage, I decided that patriotism — like the meandering, at times frightful, at times transcendent, peaks and valleys of a great American road trip — is not a destination but a journey through space and history to a place that has always been contested and is always evolving.
“History is full of people who had deep ambivalence about the United States, who often despaired about the United States but who nonetheless decided that they were going to throw in their lot with the country, try to make it better, try to shape it in the ways that they wanted it to exist — and that seems like patriotism too,” said Gage.
I asked Massachusetts Representative Ayanna Pressley about how she connects to the idea of patriotism, and she told me that one of the most patriotic things she’s ever seen was the Black custodians cleaning up the mess left behind by the January 6th insurrectionist mob who trashed the United States Capitol.
“Those Black custodians, they’re patriots,” said Pressley, in an interview for the “Patriotism Is a Verb” series. “This is what it is to be in a relationship with America. Your heart breaks and in the same minute is made whole.”
It was a useful reminder that pride and heartbreak often go together in this country.
To close out my series, I visited the Chelsea High School history fair, where freshmen presented projects on different chapters of American history. Chelsea is ground zero for ICE raids in Massachusetts, and I was curious how these kids — Chelsea High is 90 percent Latino — are processing various truths about American history while the American present bears down on them.
Unsurprisingly, the students were focused on eras that echo the chaos and xenophobia of America today. I saw at least three projects on the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, a law that incentivized the capture of Black people in free states whether or not they were runaways.
“It helps them see this pattern of American history,” their teacher, Byron Williams told me. “I think it helps them see that this is what America does. This stuff doesn’t come out of the blue.”
Williams said he tells his students that one pattern throughout American history is that marginalized people — people like them — are the ones who make the country better.
Williams recently published a book called “Liberty and Equality in America,” which explores the radical ideas of the Declaration of Independence and celebrates the document, despite the country’s failure to always live up to its ideals.
“The reason those words still have life today is there’s always been some brave souls that reimagined what those words mean,” said Williams. “What does equality mean today? That’s why I love the country, because we’re dynamic. We’re not frozen. We’re not stagnant. We can change.”
Standing in the crowded gym in Chelsea, I saw kids from a variety of backgrounds earnestly contending with the darkest chapters of American history.
I stopped to appreciate what a wild experiment the United States is. The fact that we are a diverse country by design. Founded on the idea that all people are equal.
Our apparent distance from realizing that dream doesn’t diminish how worthy it is. Not one bit.