A New Kind of Country

A FEW months ago, I was walking in a liberal neighborhood in Boston – or is that redundant? Anyway, I was brought up short by one of the gloomiest-looking bumper stickers I’d ever seen: It showed the Stars and Stripes, not in the customary bright colors but in especially drab black and white, accompanied by the words “SIN OF PRIDE.” I felt appropriately chastened, even though I didn’t know which specific national offenses had occasioned the motorist’s Puritanical wrath.

Puritanical? You bet. The bumper sticker was addressing contemporary politics in the severest language of moral chastisement and moral aspiration – and I think the Puritans who lived in that neighborhood some 350 years ago would have recognized in it the work of a kindred spirit.

About the Author

Michael Potemra

Michael Potemra was a literary editor for National Review.

Featured Tags

A FEW months ago, I was walking in a liberal neighborhood in Boston – or is that redundant? Anyway, I was brought up short by one of the gloomiest-looking bumper stickers I’d ever seen: It showed the Stars and Stripes, not in the customary bright colors but in especially drab black and white, accompanied by the words “SIN OF PRIDE.” I felt appropriately chastened, even though I didn’t know which specific national offenses had occasioned the motorist’s Puritanical wrath.

Puritanical? You bet. The bumper sticker was addressing contemporary politics in the severest language of moral chastisement and moral aspiration – and I think the Puritans who lived in that neighborhood some 350 years ago would have recognized in it the work of a kindred spirit.