One can have respect for the office of the President of the United States without having respect for the person who holds that office. One respects what the office should be. If the person in that office fails to live up to the demands of the office and shows by his policies and actions that he is not worthy of the office, that doesn't mean one respects the office any the less.

When one is in the military, one may have contempt for an officer who is stupid and arrogant. But when you salute that officer, you are saluting the uniform, not necessarily the man. Same idea.

By the same token, it is one's patriotic duty to criticize one's country's leaders when one judges them to be in the wrong. Not to do so, mindlessly accepting what they do merely because they are the leaders, verges on treason. At the very least, it is a failure to do one's duty as a citizen.

Don Firth