If you’ve spent enough time around a Trump voter or an alt-right Republican, you will have heard them speak about being a patriot or patriotism as if it freshened their breath the more they mentioned it. Somehow, after the Tea Party Patriots splintered off and created their own movement in 2009, the word has traveled throughout the mouths of Conservatives in the mainstream a lot more. So, why have the Left and Progressives simply allowed the Right to over-take the word and adopt it along with their ideologies?

<figure class="wp-block-image"><figcaption>Five deferments and flag-hugging isn’t patriotic</figcaption></figure>

What is a Patriot?

Let’s define what a “Patriot” actually is. According to the dictionary, a “patriot” is “a person who loves and supports his or her country.” Sounds pretty simple and straightforward. Oregon, which despite its liberal reputation, is actually an epicenter for Right-wing extremists. A new group from there is called “Patriot Prayer” which support Trump and include his supporters and White nationalists aka supremacists. Here in Arizona, two groups designated as official hate groups by the SPLC, Patriot Movement AZ and it’s spin-off AZ Patriots have expressed their hatred for undocumented immigrants. They’ve been sued by groups and even temporarily had a page deactivated on Facebook. Recently, their antics even caused a now-very popular meme. Hello Green-Shirt Guy!

You also have had people claim to be patriots reject the actions of Colin Kaepernick, the Superbowl quarterback who formerly played for San Francisco 49ers before being ousted and black-balled for kneeling during the National Anthem. Kaepernick expressed his Constitutional First Amendment rights as a United States citizen to bring attention to police brutality against Black citizens. Right-wingers felt it unpatriotic and cowardly for a lone Black man to take a stance and not fall in line with the White majority. This shows the divide and lack of concern White America is with the feelings or opinions of Black Americans. But how is expressing what’s wrong with America by yourself cowardly or unpatriotic? That doesn’t even make sense.

<figure class="wp-block-image"><figcaption>Colin Kaepernick expressing his patriotic First Amendment right</figcaption></figure>

Criticizing America is patriotic

It’s just as patriotic to criticize America, it’s policies, actions, and brutality toward other Americans (or the world at large) and <g class="gr_ gr_6 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear Grammar multiReplace" id="6" data-gr-id="6">want</g> something better for <g class="gr_ gr_8 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear ContextualSpelling multiReplace" id="8" data-gr-id="8">it’s</g> people as it is to fight outside of its borders. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Freedom Riders, SNCC, Malcolm X, A. Philip Randolph, Muhammad Ali, and so many others were just as patriotic as Kaepernick is by taking a stance against what is un-American. Yet, the left hasn’t made as much of an impact with them being considered patriots like right-wingers have. The Right <g class="gr_ gr_7 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear Grammar multiReplace" id="7" data-gr-id="7">have</g> co-opted not only the word “patriot” but also attached it to the 2nd Amendment, gun ownership, police, and military personnel.

It may be an unpopular opinion but how is it more patriotic to fight in foreign countries under the guise of “protecting your freedoms” when Congress and Supreme Court are the only ones who can add, reduce, remove, or amend the Constitution? Nobody inside the walls of Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Libya, Mexico, or Canada can threaten your right to bear arms or freedom of speech. So, how is the military more patriotic than regular citizens who demand to extend the lives of children by banning certain assault rifles from killers inside the borders? We can respect the ideals of trying to stop evil from happening to people in other countries but maybe it’s more patriotic for military vets to stay within the US borders and fight against police brutality, a racist president, and right-wing Nazi parades.

<figure class="wp-block-image"><figcaption>Protesting inside the US Borders for human lives is patriotic</figcaption></figure>

No, you’re not a patriot if..

Fact is, you’re not a patriot by strapping an AR-15 on your back and walking into a Walmart or Starbucks pretending you’re comfortable, Batman, and about to stop a crime in progress saving the entire town while sipping an iced chai latte. You’re not a patriot by dressing in camouflage, with your overweight friends in the woods, riding 4-wheel vehicles, looking like Al Qaeda with beer bellies. You’re not patriotic by allowing Trump to strip the rights of LGBTQ or Muslim citizens, backing White supremacists, destroying the environment, or denying people in need of asylum to preserve White skinned humans. The left needs to open their mouths and reclaim the word and inform those what it really means to be a patriot.

<figure class="wp-block-image"><figcaption>People who think it’s patriotic to get coffee with guns strapped to them.</figcaption></figure>

Love your country and support the Constitution while doing it. People and love over ideologies. And if you’re a Christian, act like it. Patriots are Muslim, Sikh, Agnostic, Buddhist, and every other denomination there is. White isn’t an automatic patriotic skin color. It never was and never will be..again. It’s time to accept the diversity of this country, the love of it, and that not everyone is treated the same within its borders. Those who haven’t accepted that and are fighting for the status quo and against its multiculturalism aren’t patriots. They’re fascists.

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