Can we rediscover the "joys of patriotism?"

Charles Kesler writes n Real Clear Politics,

...When Kate Smith died in 1986, the LA Times declared that “God Bless America” had “transformed her from a popular singer to a national symbol of joyful patriotism.” We need to rediscover the joy of patriotism, beginning with the recognition that America’s faults do not outweigh the blessings of liberty—and that neither our sins nor our virtues relieve us from seeking “the light from above.”

The song is a kind of prayer, asking for God’s blessing and guidance, while giving thanks for the beauty and sweetness of this our continental home. Those surrounding oceans were not wide enough to prevent world war from finding America again. And through World War II, as it had through the Great Depression, Kate Smith’s voice “cheered her countrymen through the darkest days,” to quote the Los Angeles Times’s obituary of her. She traveled more than 500,000 miles to entertain troops and sold more War Bonds than any other show-business figure—$600 million worth in the course of the war.

Read much more here.