Top 10 Most Patriotic Songs Ever: Nation Readers Speak

Top 10 Most Patriotic Songs Ever: Nation Readers Speak

Top 10 Most Patriotic Songs Ever: Nation Readers Speak

Nation readers’ pick!

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While July 4th memories are still fresh, I want to thank all of you who sent comments and suggestions to my list of the top 12 patriotic songs ever. Needless to say, such a list is impossible to get right, as many were quick to remind me.

I was rightly chided by more than one reader for neglecting Bob Dylan, denounced as a bigot for ignoring hip-hop and called an unprintable name, perhaps with due cause, for including a Dave Matthews cover of Neil Young. I also received a stream of Lee Greenwood and Toby Keith links "so I can hear what music real Americans listen to."

Best of all were the great suggestions, my favorites of which include songs by Leonard Cohen, Peter, Paul & Mary, James Brown and Marvin Gaye. Go here to listen to the full list of Nation readers’ most patriotic songs ever.

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

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Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

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