The nationalism of liberals and conservatives
Ben Casnocha recently argued that while liberals point to conservatives’ bastardization of patriotism for aggressive foreign policy, they are equally guilty of appropriating nationalist ideas for their own aims. In particular, through nationalistic trade policies (“Buy American”, tariffs, etc.) liberals undermine the American economy, as well as endangering the livelihoods of the poor in developing countries for whom liberals often claim to advocate.
Casnocha also claims that protectionism is “more dangerously nationalistic” maybe because this brand of patriotism “is less understood, especially by those who hold it”. This is bizarre. The use of patriotism to send America into war for often dubious reasons is at least as dangerous and poorly understood (how many people can articulate a good reason for invading Iraq?). The clearer point in the comparison between liberals and conservatives is that we should be skeptical whenever and wherever patriotism is used to justify policy, as it can be easily employed to disguise baseless and irresponsible government decisions.
