Winds of patriotism renewed

Election brings a liberal zeal for Old Glory

Ronnie Chapman has hidden away his American flag for much of the past eight years. "I felt it was no longer a symbol of the country I love, but of Bush and support for his war," said the 48-year-old pharmacist from Cary. "The first thing I did the morning after the election was take it from my den and fly it proudly in front of my house."

Chapman's response to the presidential election reflects the emergence of an unusual -- and some might say contradictory -- new figure: the flag-waving liberal.

After a divisive presidency and strident campaign in which patriotism was used as a wedge issue, supporters of President-elect Barack Obama are hanging flags, donning Old Glory lapel pins and humming the national anthem.

"We just feel this pride and this swelling of joy," said Cheryl Kimmel, 49, of Cary, who worked on Obama's campaign with her 18-year-old daughter, Jeanelle Alexander. "We're extremely proud to be Americans today."

"For years it's felt like patriotism was a Republican thing," said Raven Moeslinger, 21, a senior at UNC-Chapel Hill. "Now I feel like we've reclaimed it."

"The night after the election, I got in bed and started reading the Declaration of Independence for the first time in a long time," said Sherry Harmon, 55, of Cary. "I felt I needed to touch base with our roots because I think we need to refresh our ideas of who we are as Americans."

Though many Republicans -- including President Bush and Sen. John McCain -- have hailed the election of the first African-American president as a watershed moment in which Americans should take pride, others view the outburst of patriotism with feelings that range from chagrin to bewilderment. They find it ironic that Obama has inspired such feelings.

After all, they say, he's the same man who refused to wear a flag pin in his lapel, whose longtime spiritual adviser, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, had chanted, "God damn America," and whose wife, Michelle, had said during the campaign: "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I'm really proud of my country."

These Republicans see Democrats as sunshine patriots, stirred more by partisan victory than love of country. "In my circles, we have always been proud of what America represents," said David Smudski, 52, the chairman of the Durham County Republican Party. "We are happy that people are proud to fly it [the flag] again. We think it should have been flown all along."

IDEAS THAT MAKE AN AMERICAN

The surge in patriotism is a particularly American response, anchored in contemporary political culture and the broad currents of American history. It reveals the alienation many Democrats felt from their government during a controversial wartime presidency, as well as the pivotal role that patriotism has long played throughout our history.

Where most other nations are bound together by ethnic identity, America has been united by concepts such as equality and justice. This foundation is powerfully inclusive, enabling people to arrive here from far-flung corners of the globe and consider themselves Americans.

But it is also a fragile one. In a nation that has not always lived up to its soaring ideals, people have long debated the meaning of America and how to honor it.

"Conservatives look at this country and are grateful for the opportunities," said Smudski, the Durham Republican. "Progressives, as they're calling themselves now, look at this country and see the warts and say, 'Oh, this is such an ugly country.' They haven't been proud of America because of those warts."

Democrats counter that constructive criticism and dissent are the highest forms of patriotism. They complain that during the Bush years, the flag became shorthand for loyalty to Bush's policies.