Patriotism and nationalism may both consist of a love of country but express that love in different ways.

Patriotism allows us to disagree about our country’s future without questioning one another’s loyalty.

Identity and belonging are shaped not just by shared history, but also by the future people hope to create.

As Americans prepare to vote in the upcoming midterm elections, what it means to love one’s country has become as important as who should lead it. Love of country is fundamentally connected to identity, since our sense of self is often intertwined with how we understand our country’s past, respond to its present, and imagine its future. Yet, the challenge today is not whether to love our country, but how to love it in a way that strengthens rather than divides us.

No matter where I live, South Florida will always feel like home. Whenever I return to visit family or friends, I make a point of walking along Hollywood Beach. It’s not because it is objectively better than Fort Lauderdale Beach or South Beach. If anything, this stretch of beach has escaped much of the redevelopment that has transformed the rest of South Florida. It still has the same old shops, the familiar scent of the ocean, and the recognizable breeze coming off the water. Over the past 25 years, time and other people’s lives have reshaped the South Florida I grew up in. Yet on those walks, I can still find a remnant of the place I once knew and, with it, a connection to the place and the life that........

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