Nationalist or Patriot?

Nicely-drawn distinction between "nationalism" and "patriotism."  Choose the latter, friends.

....Nationalism as is understood today by most people is largely a product of the French Revolution to push the French speaking peoples into a mode of hyper-statism and away from decentralization. It is ironic that the modern Right embraces the leftist notion to such a degree.

Many today declare themselves civic nationalists while laying claim to the intellectual thought of the conservative movement, which ironically always critiqued nationalism from a traditionalist perspective.

Traditional American conservatives such as Robert Nisbet or Russell Kirk were extremely critical of nationalism and identified it with social engineering and consolidated federal power vs. localism. Today it is seen as bedrock of a hard right, statist movement, which often tends toward fascism.

I have written elsewhere:

“Professor Clyde Wilson, staunch traditionalist and someone the SPLC would label a ‘neo confederate’ famously stated, ‘Patriotism is the wholesome, constructive love of one’s land and people. Nationalism is the unhealthy love of one’s government, accompanied by the aggressive desire to put down others—which becomes in deracinated modern men a substitute for religious faith. Patriotism is an appropriate, indeed necessary, sentiment for people who wish to preserve their freedom; nationalism is not.’...

There you are.

HT:  Cold Fury