Patriotism

Patriot: one who loves and defends his or her country.

What a tough hurdle for a presidential candidate.

I think most Americans love their country.
I think most people love their spouse ... (most of the time.)
I think that if you love something or someone you should be able to criticize it or them from time to time.

"We the People, in order to form a more perfect union."
The United States of America is not perfect. We are still a pretty young country. We are pretty darn good, but we can always improve.

Let's go back to the spouse example: If you really love someone, you want the best for them. You want them to improve their faults, you want them to get better as a person, you want them to be the best they can be.

Right or left, we love our country. We want the best for it. We may disagree about best way to make America better, but for either party to say the other is unpatriotic for its efforts to make US better is just plain wrongheaded.

There are many issues to look at this election this year, but patriotism is just not one of them.