Last week I was interviewed on our regional NPR station, WMRA, out of Harrisonburg, Virginia. I commend it to your attention.

I particularly commend the closing couple of moments. Previously in the interview, I had talked about the meaning of “patriotism,” defining it as the willingness to sacrifice one’s own comfort and interest for the good of one’s country, when one’s country needs it. That definition brings into focus how UNpatriotic today’s Republican Party is, with its repeated sacrifice of the good of the nation for partisan advantage.

But then in the closing, I use the idea of patriotism to make a different point. I’m talking to the “good, decent conservatives” of the 6th District — a characterization I really believe in — people who have been systematically lied to by the political leaders they have supported.

I acknowledge that what I am asking of them, when I call upon them to recognize the truth and change their political allegiance accordingly, would entail considerable discomfort. Having acknowledged that abandoning the phony world that the right-wing propagandists have been painting for them for twenty years would be distressing and disorienting, I then return to the definition of a patriot as someone who’s willing to sacrifice his comfort for the good of the nation. And I say, there may be no more patriotic thing they can ever do for their country than to be willing to endure that discomfort and make that shift.

The interview can be heard at http://www.wmra.org/post/andy-schmookler-democratic-candidate-6th-district.

I’d be grateful of readers here would spread the word and send this link around to the people for whom it might be appropriate.