That's not my point, every value judgement and any belief you have in the people of this country gives you one choice in 2017as far as party's are concerned. If you can't see that then your motivated by things that aren't in the best interest of this country and your not a patriot. There is no middle ground. The biggest threat to this country is sitting in the white house.
Oh, so you're saying one's political ideology determines whether or not you're a patriot. Belong to the right political party, you're a patriot. Belong to the other or none, you're a traitor. Okay, you never used the word traitor, but it sure was implied. If you're a liberal, a progressive, a Democrat, you're a patriot, if you're not, you're not. If you're an anti-Trumper trying to destroy him, you're a patriot. If you're a pro-Trumper, you're a traitor. If you support Trump on some policies because you think those policies right and good for the country, you're not a patriot. If you oppose Trump regardless if you think that policy is right for the country, you're not.
I think being a patriot has nothing to do with one's political ideology or which political party one belongs to or none for that matter. I think what determines a patriot or not is one's actions he has done to help and for the good of the country. Political leaders come and go, some are looked upon with high esteem, others not. Political philosophy changes, evolves as do political parties and their ideology.
I first became interested in politics watching the Republican and Democratic National Conventions on TV back in 1956. I remember both Eisenhower and JFK fondly. Both were in my opinion what a president should be. The ideal presidents that no other president since has came close to matching. Yet neither IKE or JFK with their ideas, political philosophy, ideology they held at that time would be welcomed in their respective political parties today. Neither would even recognize their parties.
Sorry, I prefer to be a free thinker, to be able to make up my mind about things, policies, issues, candidates, parties and so on. I prefer not to be a mindless robot follow the dictates of any one political party. It's people like me that scare the two major parties to death, they can't take us for granted. The two major parties have to earn our support, our vote. When one party is in charge, that party has to do things, govern in a way we see good for the nation. If not we kick them out of office. In 1994, we kicked the Democrats out of congress and in 2000 elected a Republican president. When we thought they were doing thing wrong for the country, we kicked out the Republicans from congress in 2006 and elected a Democratic president in 2008. Then the Democratic congress made us really angry by ignoring America as a whole, just their party's base, so we kicked the Democrats out of the House in 2010 and out of the senate in 2014. In 2018, it was the republicans turn to be kicked out of the house.
I left 2016 out because that year, most of us independent minded folks disliked and didn't want neither major party candidate. We didn't support either one. In fact 54% of us disliked both and 12% of us voted against both by voting third party. 9 million of us did that. Still Trump did win the independent vote 46-42, but those independents held their nose and voted for the candidate they least wanted to lose, not to win, but least wanted to lose. Candidate matter.
https://news.gallup.com/opinion/pol...mericans-dislike-presidential-candidates.aspx
If you want Trump gone in 2020, you best remember that, candidates matter. Any other Democrat, alive or dead would have beaten Trump. You just happen to nominate a candidate more disliked by independents, 70% disliked Hillary, 57% disliked Trump, a majority disliked both. Questions 10 and 11. Candidates matter.
https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/l37rosbwjp/econTabReport_lv.pdf
I think one's past and future actions, how one lives his life, what one does for the country as a whole, not just for one political party or ideology, for the country as a whole determines whether one is a patriot or not. Not whether one supports or is against any one particular president for what ever reason. Patriotism certainly isn't determined by the R or the D next to one's name.