Is it becoming harder and harder to be patriotic?

Question

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080711/ap_on_go_pr_wh/terrorist_surveillance

Answer 1

No, it is not hard to be patriotic.  Patriotism means to stand behind the Constitution.  It does not mean to support criminal politicians who violate the Constitution, and abuse the rights of the American people.

Patriotism does not mean to support the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, the National ID Card Act, the Protect America Act, or the legalization of torture.  Patriotism means to expose the criminals who are undermining the Bill of Rights.  Patriotism means to stand up for your rights, in the face of criminals who have contempt for us.

We have politicians who are voting to give immunity to telecommunications who assist them in their illegal work.  They DO NOT HAVE THE AUTHORITY to give immunity to anyone for something that violates the rights of American citizens.  They are in violation of the law when they spy on the American people without a warrant, specifically, the Fourth Amendment of the Bill of Rights.

So it's easy to be partiotic.  We need to stand behind our Constitution, not the criminals who violate it.

Answer 2

now you're sounding like a separatist

Answer 3

h**l no! I'm confident that the Obama-Clinton administration can turn the USA back in the right (no pun) direction.

Answer 4

Yes, but I'm still patriotic, and I feel the corrupt politicians such as Bush should be punished for their power abusing.

Answer 5

I am becoming more and more patriotic.  Freedom is worth the fight.  And I love my country.  Let's fight to keep it free.

Answer 6

The U.S. is now a fascist country, no longer do citizens have rights of privacy... as such the country should be taken down in revolution and subsequently restored to what it should have been.

Answer 7

No, not really.  I will be performing my patriotic duties by voting for a Democratic President, come November.  And whoever helped vote to put this legislation in place, I will help vote them out as best as I can locally.  I love my country, but I do not like the clowns in office that are making these horrible decisions.

Answer 8

Being Patriotic is not easy, but it is necessary to maintain the principles upon which this country was founded.  America’s founders had an extremely difficult time being Patriotic, but they were all products of the Age of Enlightenment and knew better than most people living today exactly what Patriotism meant and what it costs.  They were actually Patriotic to an idea more than a country, because this country had not yet even been created.  

Patriotism is meant to be Love for one’s Country.  This does not mean Love for its elected officials.  These people have a sworn obligation to see to it that the way this country operates conforms to the principles outlined in the Constitution.  Many of these politicians have broken their promise to do just that.  It is not at all unpatriotic to expose them for their transgressions and hold them accountable for the travesty they have bestowed upon this once great country by straying from the Constitution’s principles.  It is, in fact, an unalienable obligation of the people to enforce their own government.  The problem arises when too many people stay uninformed about the things that are going on right under their noses yet go unnoticed.  For a Democracy to work, the people must be educated and informed.

Too many people misinterpret Patriotism with blind respect for authority.  By authority, I’m talking about our elected officials who obviously, in the opinion of anyone who has been paying any attention at all, have been abusing their authority for their own selfish purposes.  Until the apathetic sheeple of this country wake up they will continue to be exploited up to the point of total imprisonment.  

I am losing hope that this will ever happen in time for this country to find its way back to the path of righteousness.  There are just not enough people who have the intelligence and knowledge to accomplish this task because they are vastly outnumbered by mindless sheeple who don’t even have a clue as to how far we’ve strayed from the principles outlined in the Constitution that this country’s Founders fought and died for only to have them given away by an apathetic population of ungrateful and unworthy descendents.

Answer 9

No, the more this goes on the more patriotic I become. Before when things went smoothly I didn't care much, but now something is very wrong with our government, and we can't let them get away with it.

To be a Patriot you must sacrifice something for the good of your country.

Answer 10

Here's a good bumper sticker to answer that:

I'm HAPPY to be an American, just not particularly PROUD to be one!

Answer 11

No, but it's hard to believe that our constitution is being battered the way that it is.

Answer 12

When you sacrifice freedom over security, you lose both.

Bush is like the one-man energizer Constitution wrecker, and one of the worst President this great nation ever had. And to think the Supreme Court INSTALLED him after an anomalous election.

This warrantless spying on American citizen is like going 10 steps backward from democracy and into totalitarianism. Use to be when we hear foreigner say on phone "be careful what you say, the "agents" maybe listening"...we say "thank God we live in America" . Now coming to the nearest American neighbour is the same horror stories we here from 3rd world survivors. Government will protect you, but you have to sacrifice your freedom. Welcome to 1984. Out Founding Fathers are turning on their graves, probably cursing down on us for flushing down the toilet the nation they built out of their own sacrifices and bravery.

Answer 13

Yes, Patriotism now requiring to "Scarify", and most of the BIG bellies are not willing to do this on their own.