I’ve seen many a Republican fail epically when tossing around the word unpatriotic, only to be unable to defend the use of it.   Invariably, unpatriotic is equated with being unAmerican.  But even Democrats are American, sort of.  Flag-waving isn’t the same as patriotism.   Wearing a flag on your lapel does not make you a patriot.   It may remind people that you’re pro America, but it doesn’t make you a patriot.

To a Democrat, being ‘patriotic’ is going along with what Democrats and standing against Republicans “for democracy” or the cause of the week.  But it’s clearly not that either.

Patriotism is simple.  It’s a profound belief in the Constitution, the wisdom of the founders of this nation, and the willingness to defend it.  If it’s unconstitutional, it’s unpatriotic.  If it means to defeat the Constitution by any other way than an amendment, it’s unpatriotic.

So, the next time you use unpatriotic in a sentence, you have a nice, simple hammer with which to respond to the first person to call you out.  Because they’re going to expect for you to fail epically when they do.   But this time, they’re the ones on the other end of a smack down.  It sure would be refreshing to see a few Republican politicians use and defend the word patriot and all of its variations correctly for once.   We could use a few good  smack downs about now, because there’s nothing I can imagine as unpatriotic as what is happening in Washington right now.