On "Patriotism" and the Conscience of a Nation

“We have a bastard Patriotism, a sarcasm, a burlesque; but we have no such thing as a public conscience. Politically we are just a joke.”

We get the leaders we deserve, we rally around them and question the patriotism of anyone with the moral courage to point out that the emperor has no clothes.

This is not patriotism, and far worse avowed disloyalty, for it calls itself something for which it is not.

Did I mention that we get the leaders we deserve?