“A patriotic society can, and must, co-exist with a liberal and forward-thinking population.” I was surprised to find such a statement on Thursday after my IGST 101 lecture where I can conveniently grab an issue of The Campus leaving the auditorium. To me, such an op-ed provided an overgeneralizing description of the leftist perspective on national identity. Quite on the contrary, I believe that the recent usage of patriotism as compromising propaganda for left-wing parties is what manifested its frictions with left-wing ideologies.
Distinguishing between the two is important, as the ideological perspective provides a valuable argument against the rather pragmatic one presented by the author regarding the Starmer campaign of 2024. Can Starmer represent the left simply due to his leadership of the Labour Party? A similar question can be raised towards former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's premiership in the 2000s. In hindsight, his departure from the historical position of the Labour Party was regarded as a strategy to appeal to moderate voters rather than a mere revision of a continuously left-wing political stance. Similar trends could be seen in the 2024 U.K. general election where, compared with the 2019 election, the Labour Party gained support from voters with higher social grades as categorized by the National Readership Survey (NRS) who traditionally favor the Tories.
Thus raised the question: How did Starmer's stance appeal to moderate voters? I came to the conclusion that the patriotic ideals held by his campaign were used as a tool of political stabilization that would only be effective if it conflicts with and dilutes the left-wing ideologies of the Labour Party. It is true that such a strategy led the party to a historic victory, just as how Friedrich Ebert led the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) to its first triumph in 1918 while allying with the nationalists and suppressing left-wing activities. On the other hand, the author’s reference to the “muted, and often unfortunate” reactions of the leftist population might still indicate that a party could not be inherently left-winged simply due to its name.
I do not believe that the acceptance of patriotism may maintain the long term progressivism of left-wing parties as well. Patriotism that works as a stabilizing measure to appeal to moderate voters at the expense of the longstanding left-wing attitudes could hardly be beneficial in the long term. This can also be generalized to the case in the Kenyan Independence movement, where the author claims that patriotism was seen as “the vessel by which we [the author] fought for independence before 1963.” As a vessel, patriotism serves to promote solidarity that may facilitate liberals on the way toward their goals. However, the nature that allowed it to unite the masses has shown its neutralizing force against the more progressive and emancipatory ideals.
Another questionable rebuttal towards the separation of progressivism and patriotism was given on the ground that nation-states form the basis of modern politics. While this is true, I found somewhat contentious the projection that such a system would generally remain fixed “throughout our entire lives.” To me, a successful change in society could only be made in practice after a widespread challenge of the traditional approach in principle; not to mention that influential ideological systems that suggested alternatives to the national identity, such as Marxism, have been formed centuries ago. Henceforth, I do not accept the argument against being idealistic under such an ideological context, especially when it comes to a progress that, despite setbacks in the past decades, have already significantly changed the world.
Vladimir Lenin once addressed similar arguments in a rather acute way: “All the social-chauvinists are now ‘Marxists’ (don’t laugh!). And more and more frequently German bourgeois scholars, only yesterday specialists in the annihilation of Marxism, are speaking of the ‘national-German’ Marx [...]!” While his perspective is certainly debatable, it reminds us to consider the implications of patriotism within left-wing philosophies. Patriotism can be a convenient way of gaining support, but we risk having the core of progressive and liberal ideals forgotten equally conveniently if we cross the line too far.
