From the historic campus of Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, where the good, the true, and the beautiful are taught, nurtured, and honored, this is the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour, bringing the activity and education of the college to listeners across the country.

So this critiquing of the founders and this ripping on our forefathers and everybody's getting second-guessed in the nastiest ways and every flaw is being exploded.

That's actually causing us to lose the habits of friendship in our nation.

This is your host, Scott Bertram. And that's Dr. Matthew Mian, Director of Academic Programs

for Hillsdale in D.C., and assistant professor of government at the Graduate School of

Government. We talk with Dr. Mian about patriotism as a virtue. Matt, thanks for joining us.

Thanks for having me, Scott. Patriotism is not always included

in philosophical or religious lists of virtues. So what in your mind makes patriotism a virtue?

So it's actually a subset of justice giving to each what they're due and doing no harm. But giving

what's owed, there's a number of different sort of people that we're in debt to.

And we in justice have to honor them, thank them, even serve them in whatever way we can when they do us great favors, especially excellent things.

And, you know, we talk about the virtue of religion

is recognizing that God gives us being and government. So thanks. In him, we live and move and have

our being says St. Paul to the Athenians and the Acts of the Apostles, right? And that means we have

to, you know, worship God and thank him.

But, okay, that's one type of, and the big type of being in government.

He governs the entire world with nature's laws and the laws of religion.

But there's piety because we get our being and our government from our parents.

They teach us how to live and they make us, you know, thanks.

And then, but the other thing we get is patriotism.

So religion to God is that kind of debt and thanks.

And then piety to our parents.

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