Kerby Anderson

When the presidents of France and the United States were together earlier this month to commemorate the 100^thanniversary of the end of World War I, French President Macron decided to criticize President Trump’s use of the term “nationalism.” President Macron argued that: “Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism” because it will actually “erase what a nation holds dearest . . . its moral values.” Senator Marco Rubio responded to that claim in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. He believes that the French president got everything exactly backward. “It is through the nation that moral values can be upheld and sustained. In America, our ideals are deeply intertwined with our national traditions and institutions.” Senator Rubio went on to explain that, “What makes America exceptional is that our values are built into our national identity. While we have never been completely true to our founding ideas, for more than two centuries each generation has fought and succeeded to move us closer to them.” He also quoted from President Abraham Lincoln, who spoke of a united American spirit in his First Inaugural Address: “The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.” Critics of President Trump want to remind us of the negative connotations of the word “nationalism.” That is certainly true as well. However, I appreciate the fact that Senator Rubio wants to remind us of the importance of national pride and patriotism, especially in a country that is defined more by ideas than by any ethnic or religious cohesion.