Politics & Power Quote by Herbert Croly

Croly’s opening move is the little knife of “Of course”: a phrase that pretends consensus while quietly correcting it. The line reads like a civics compliment, but its real target is American self-flattery-the reflex to treat patriotism as a national patent and sincerity as a domestic product. By insisting Americans have “no monopoly,” Croly punctures the exceptionalist habit without staging a full moral condemnation. It’s a Progressive-era way of arguing: reformist in aim, cosmopolitan in frame, allergic to boosterism.

The pairing of “patriotic enthusiasm” with “good faith” is doing strategic work. “Enthusiasm” is energy, spectacle, collective feeling-the stuff that rallies crowds and sells wars. “Good faith” is the ethical alibi that often accompanies that energy: we meant well, we believed, we were earnest. Croly’s implication is that both can be widespread and still be dangerous, because neither guarantees wisdom. A nation can be sincerely wrong; it can be fervently committed to a myth.

Context matters: Croly was one of the key architects of modern liberal nationalism, trying to reconcile national purpose with democratic reform. This sentence signals a tension at the heart of that project. He wants a strong, confident America, but not a smug one; a country capable of self-critique precisely because it recognizes other nations are also moved by love of country and the conviction of being right. The subtext is a warning against confusing moral feeling with moral authority-and against using “we’re different” as an excuse to stop thinking.