Localism: Our Last Best Hope?

How often do politicians talk about love of country? I live in England, and I would say: not often. Apart from when some boilerplate is felt to be a requirement—either for a big set-piece occasion or when pleading for belief in their good and true intentions in the wake of some perceived misjudgment or misdemeanor—it is a concept they keep largely to one side. America is different, no doubt. But even in America and elsewhere, as ties between citizens or subjects grow looser, attachment to the nation seems to exist more and more at poles: at times directed at something visceral, primal, ancestral; and at other times toward a heady legal abstraction. But where does ordinary, day-to-day, place-oriented love fit into political discourse, when eyes are not fixed on throne or flag or constitution? Read Full Article »