Glossary: patriotism

We define patriotism very simply to mean loyalty to the best interests of the people of one's country.

This is a bit different than the right-wing interpretation, which tends to imply willingness to support the policies of one's government.

The problem we see with the latter is that it tends to disallow principled criticisms of, say, administrative incompetence, failed strategy, or dishonesty. Indeed in practice it seems to want to rule out criticism of criminality, for instance when right-wingers criticize news media for broadcasting images of tortured Iraqi prisoners.

We believe that the patriotic thing to do is to oppose the War on Islam. It's a war we can't win, which will strengthen terrorism, erode civil liberties, threaten democracy at home and abroad, waste our country's treasure, and kill hundreds of thousands. It was begun by an inept and manipulative administration for false and arrogant purposes. It's illegal and immoral. It's bad for America and bad for the world.

The War on Islam is against the best interests of our people. By the definition we propose here, that makes it unpatriotic.