I don't think of a patriot as a person who supports his country whatever it does..."my country right or wrong" is horse droppings. To me a patriot is someone who takes extraordinary risks for a concept in which he believes. George Washington, Patrick Henry, Alexander Hamilton were patriots because they risked their lives and their honor in a cause which they believed was greater than themselves. Flag waving and professing loyalty are the external trappings of patriotism, but when there is no sense of right action, patriotism is absent, and jingoism replaces it. Jingoism enabled the McCarthy witch-hunt, the rise of the Third Reich, the Terror of Revolutionary France, and is fear-based. Patriotism enabled the Declaration of Independence, the Hungarian Revolution, and the Democracy Movement in China. Patriotism is loyalty to principles, not symbols. It is fidelity to a concept, not a country.