Patriotism
What does it really mean to be an American Patriot or for that matter a patriot of any country? To simply say love of country is not enough. Countries are defined by their political structure, laws, customs, and traditions. To be a true patriot of any country you must believe in and support the political structure, laws, customs, and traditions of that country otherwise the word patriot itself becomes meaningless. American patriot, Saudi patriot, Chinese Patriot all have different meanings because each country has a different political structure, different laws, customs, and traditions. That being said, some countries have very few true patriots because of the oppressive authoritarian governments that rule over them and while they may still love their country, they are simply dissidence within that oppressive authoritarian system.
American Patriots
The United States of America is a Constitutional Republic with a long democratic tradition which is based upon two major founding documents, The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America. To be a true American Patriot you must believe in the original American Dream which our forefathers defined in the Declaration of Independence, the list of grievances in the Declaration of Independence which justified their war for independence, the U.S. Constitution which defines our government, and the process our forefathers gave us to change that constitution when change was necessary in order to move forward as a society. Our forefathers lived in an era when authoritarian leaders ruled the world, and they knew would be kings and tyrants would always live among us. They gave us a Bill of Rights and the rule of law to protect us from the excesses of authoritarian government and would be tyrants. If you do not believe in and support those two documents and the process we have followed for over two hundred years to move forward toward that American Dream of equality and equal justice for all you are not an American Patriot. You are either a misguided patriot, or a traitor to your country.
Misguided Patriots
Propaganda, lies, and half truths have always been the tools of authoritarian governments and tyrants. It is far to easy for people to be mislead and deceived by those lies and half truths, especially when a person has been disappointed in life and hears what they want to believe. Human nature’s response to adversity is and always has been denial that a problem exists, followed by acknowledgment of the problem, followed by looking for someone else to blame for their problems and failures. It is simply human nature to say I couldn’t possibly be wrong about this. It couldn’t possibly be me. We want to believe what we have been taught and what we have been told by people we trust and look up to and that is what makes the lies and half truths such effective weapons of tyranny. Misguided patriots believe the would be tyrant because they so desperately want to believe the lies and half truths. It is that same desperation that makes them close their minds to any and all contradictory evidence. A vast majority of those who participated in the January 6, 2020 insurrection against America were simply misguided patriots that desperately want to believe the lies and half truths they were being told.
Traitors
The rule of just laws equally applied to all and an established path to peaceful change are the would be tyrants greatest enemy. Misinformation, half truths, and outright lies are their greatest weapons. In the USA we have a clear legal process by which we can amend our constitution when and if change is necessary. When a person tries to change the meaning of or undermine the protections provided by our constitution without following the process our forefathers gave us to amend the constitution they are traitors to our country and an enemy of the people.
Consider for a moment the First Amendment to the US Constitution, it begins: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof …”. Our forefathers lived during a time of government established/government sanctioned religions and had witnessed the prejudices, discrimination, and inhumanity caused by those established religions. It is not and never has been the moderate mainstream believers that have cause the problem, it is the extremist that seeks the power to impose their interpretation of their scriptures on the rest of society. They banned government established religion to protect us from the excesses of those religious fanatics and guarantee us the freedom to practice our own religion in our own way. For those who want to establish a government sanctioned religion, the process is simple. First they need to amend the US Constitution to eliminate the establishment clause from the constitution. Once the constitution is amended and the amendment ratified, congress would be free to impose any religious standard they see fit. We currently have a very strong Christian Nationalist movement in America. We have state and federal judges that are enforcing their religious and political views instead of the law and US Constitution. We have state and federal legislatures that are voting their religious views and openly claiming that they answer to a higher authority than our laws or the constitution. Any office holder in the Executive, Legislative, or Judicial branch of our government who takes an oath to support and defend our constitution and then takes action in support of a religious or political movement that seeks to undermine our constitution or the process we have been given to amend that constitution is a traitor to our country and enemy of the American people. The same is true of any religious leader who preaches subversion from the pulpit or any would be tyrant who encourages those religious extremists in order to gain power and further their own ambitions.