Americans have never settled the question of how best to love this country. Does patriotism mean prioritizing unconditional loyalty—the Pledge of Allegiance I remember repeating every morning of elementary school, right hand over my heart—or does it first demand skepticism and vigilance, a setting and resetting of expectations, a love that needs to be earned? This tension goes back to the very beginning, to the ratification of the Constitution , when Federalists and anti-Federalists debated