Curley: The American flag belongs to all of us, don’t let politics steal your patriotism

Cheering for America has never been so complicated. Some deserve a gold medal for mental gymnastics. They might need to see a therapist or chiropractor, just as they pump their fists in the air and cheer USA, USA.

The problem is there are two emotions going on at the same time, a little cognitive dissonance — that’s where you hold two ideas, opposing ideas, in your head at the same time — there’s patriotism and nationalism.

Patriotism is like your favorite t-shirt; nationalism is like a face tattoo

Patriotism is in group love. That’s any group that you’re a part of, you love that group. Your team, as opposed to the other team, that’s fine. That’s what patriotism is. You love your team without hating the other team, except if the other team threatens your team in a serious way. So you end up hating them because they could hurt you, they could kill you, or at least ruin your chances for home field advantages.

Nationalism, on the other hand, is “We’re just better than everybody else, because you all suck and we’re just better than you.”

It’s a little bit like patriotism is like your favorite t-shirt, and nationalism is like a face tattoo. That’s probably the best way to describe it, so that you get the two differences.

It’s not fair to compare yesterday’s gold medal to 1980

So I’m old enough to remember watching the USA win against the USSR.

My brother and I jumped up and down on the orange couch, the couch that my mom always hated. My dad bought it because it was on sale. And at that point, Moose, the golden retriever, jumps off the leather chair that was next to the television set that Moose had to be sitting on in order for us to get Channel 6, which was ABC.

If the moose was not sitting on the chair, then something was wrong with the antenna that had a piece of tin foil on it. And for some reason, Channel 6 would suddenly go off the air, or at least get all fuzzy. So we didn’t see anything after Al Michaels yelled, “Do you believe in miracles?” That’s when my brother and I would jump up and down.

So it’s really not fair to compare what happened yesterday in overtime to 46 years ago, because I’ll take you back to the 1980s. In fact, in 1980, get this, half of America, half of those surveyed, believed that nuclear war was likely. And of those who thought it was likely, 50%, they all agreed that survival was impossible.

Most Americans thought they were going to die

So you had a country where half of the people believed that we were all going to die. So talk about in-group and out-group, and patriotism and nationalism all mix up into the USSR hockey team.

Now, these guys were basically professionals who were masquerading as amateurs. They had played together for years and years, and they were forced to be reckoned with. They could beat any team on ice, and the fact that the USA was made up of mostly young men who hadn’t played for more than three or four months together, the fact that they beat them really was a miracle.

And at this point in America, there was a sense that we desperately needed the miracle, because in the following year, in 1980, those surveyed 70% believed that nuclear war was inevitable. And of course, of the 70% that thought nuclear war was right around the corner, so was the end of life as we knew it.

So the fact that you could have, in 1980 and 1981, such a presence, an ominous presence of all of our death. We took all of that fear and turned it into loathing against those men in red on that ice and those skates, and we hated them because we felt that they hated us.

And it was easy. It was simple. It was us against them. It was the Russians against America and America against the Russians, and who would push the button first, and when would we all die? And at what point are we supposed to get under our desks? I mean, that was the bizarre world that we all lived in at that time.

You can dislike Donald Trump and still love America

It’s a little more complicated now, because, well, we don’t really have clear enemies, so now our brains search around trying to find somebody else that we might dislike, who’s the in-group and who’s the out-group.

It’s hard to hate Canadians. I mean, let’s be honest, Nickelback is not really that bad. They do have a couple of songs that are pretty good. So you watch the Canadians, you can’t really hate him. It’s not like Russia. It’s not like what we were facing before.

So a lot of people end up feeling bad about America because they dislike Donald Trump. That’s fine. You could dislike Donald Trump, but you can still love America. And when you see somebody waving the flag and cheering USA, USA, that’s their USA — but it’s also your USA.

It can be your country as well. It’s our country. That’s what makes it so great.

So when people sit there, and they see people with the American flag, and they’re utterly disgusted because they associate the flag and the USA with Donald Trump, don’t do that. You’re doing yourself an amazing disservice. It’s like discounting “Photograph” by Nickelback, which is actually a pretty good song.

You’re part of what makes this country great

So think of it as a whole. Think of the fact that you love this country, and what you love about it is it’s inclusive, good include others. The thing about making America great is the fact that you can come here to this country, you can believe that your dream can be found here, can be birthed here, and your life can be better because you’re in this country. You’re part of what makes this country great.

And the fact that somebody’s cheering for it doesn’t mean they’re cheering against you. Just because they have the American flag doesn’t mean that they hate Democrats or they hate Democratic socialists or Canadians; that’s very similar. I’m sorry that’s redundant, but you get the idea.

So when you think about the cheering that went on, and you’re still somewhat conflicted, because you love the fact that America won, it won a gold medal, but you don’t like Donald Trump. You have to think about it this way: Remain seated. Enjoy.

If not, you jump off the chair just like Moose the dog, and you miss all the good stuff afterwards.

Listen to John Curley weekday afternoons from 3 – 7 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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