as an air force vet, it makes my blood boil when i see how conservatives have hijacked patriotism, as if liberals are somehow ill and certainly not capable of being patriots. i'm politically very active on twitter, and whenever i get trolled for my liberal views i send the attached definition and ask them, in all seriousness, "what's wrong with this word??"

i've yet to get a response.

Conservatism has always had but one purpose – to protect the wealthy and empowered by whatever means necessary. For example, the fundamental meaning of conservatism has always been the resistance to change, but now as their wealth has increased to unprecedented levels, conservative manipulators like the Koch Brothers have moved so far as to even change the meaning of the word ‘conservatism’.
Liberalism has a long history of opposition to conservatism, but the body conservative has been busy convincing those it dupes that they are in fact the ones with the liberal values, clutching to the Founding Fathers and the Constitution as things holy to them. They make a good point – the Founding Fathers were all liberals fighting against conservatism and their Constitution was supposed to remain a living document – with an ability to adapt to control the corruption enabled by the conservative ongoing, not something obscured by political appointments of Judges as it is now. And there is very little chance to change the Constitution as long as money rules . Surely this was not the intent of our Liberal Founding Fathers.

I am critical of the sins of my country. I don't consider myself a liberal and I don't worry much about labels anymore.

My (slightly drunk) uncle told me to my face that I "hate America" because he witnessed me fail to place my hand over my heart during the pledge of allegiance (which was performed in church--but that's at least twodifferent stories for another time).

I don't automatically chalk it up to his conservatism. I chalk it up to his being one of those people (hint: it's most) who will eagerly seize upon anything to confirm their own biases--without looking past the surface, thinking about it, or even realizing what they're doing.

In this case I'm already an entitled, pseudo-intellectual, commie pinko, socialist, wannabe revolutionary libtard--not putting my hand over my heart just proves it.

Liberals do this too. Everyone does this. It's not a this-kind or that-kind thing. It's a human thing.

"Hating America" may be a prepackaged thought-bite that appeals to the conservative palate--just like "hating immigrants" (or the poor, or minorities, or LGBTQ, etc.) appeals to the liberal palate. It's all weak-minded heuristics.

I keep away from anyone--of any stripe--who engages in such nonsense.

Most conservatives I have ran across are very much closed minded and into religion. I’m not surprised that they would think liberals hate the USA and are trying to destroy with what they think is a “heathen” mindset.

I - as usual - can only speak for myself. I am pretty darned Liberal (although admittedly I have a bit of a personal-responsibility/Libertarian streak as well) and have been as long as I can remember. I have (although not in the last 10 years) periodically crossed over and voted for reasonable moderate Republicans, but I am pretty consistently voting for the more Liberal candidates and taking Liberal viewpoints.

Any time alleged Conservatives question whether I hate my country it gets my blood up. I love the country of my birth. I just want to see it consistently better than it has been. And in my opinion, better would include a bit of judiciously applied regulation, progressive taxation, a Government that sets a solid backstop on how badly its citizens and legal residents can fall without a safety net, and where the real "Golden Rule" applies.

For example - how many low-income kids, or infirm elderly, or legitimately disabled could we cover for what it is going to cost to build that idiotic wall on the border with Mexico? How is giving my two next door neighbors (a couple of excellent people who happen to be gay men) a legal right to marry each other (should they be so inclined) going to hurt anybody else's marriage? I could go on but I would guess I am largely preaching to the choir here.

So no - Liberals don't hate the USA.

I think conservatism is fundamentally anti-constitutional. That is, they spout support of the constitution and the support of freedom, but pick and choose what they choose to support and outright press religious perspectives on the members of the public and hat don’t share their perspective. However, there is a continuum.
The Radical right, seems to hate liberalism.

How about we dispense with the labeling and have true representatives who care about what their constituents want. This is called democracy. What the "patriot" conservatives what is more money and are willing to create policies that grant them this. And to have some morals is "liberal" and is taboo. I was born in this country and was taught the ideals of our forefathers and they are not being lived up to.

That's absurd and labeling it as anything but rightwing mythology only furthurs it. Similar to feeding trolls - don't do it. Waving the biggest flag and shouting the loudest doesn't make one a patriot.

When push comes to shove, and sometimes it does, the rightwingers are the first to put party and themselves above country. We witness a brilliant demonstration of this in the revolting but self serving presidential regime in power in the United States right now and in the "conservative" Republican congress that services and excuses it.

FYI - these people are not actually conservatives. They are radical statists, who knowingly or ignorantly serve rich moneyed interests.

I think there's a logical fallacy involved here (a kind of straw man argument?) that evestrat touched on in an earlier comment. When our constructive criticism of America (i.e., constructive patriotism) acknowledges that the country's reality doesn't measure up to its national mythology, conservative blind patriots exaggerate this criticism to the level of hatred of the country or even treason. However, pointing out logical fallacies is out of fashion these days, especially with the group in question here....

I think they need to look in the mirror

I've seen quite a few liberals who hate America, they told me they did. I think they are a vocal minority though. There are conservatives who think that these types of liberals typify the group, but again, they are a vocal minority.

Being that right wingers are the ones that want less social programs and government, I think it's they who want to destroy what America is. I see them as hypocrites when they talk about government bloat, but then you hear them wanting a higher military budget. They complain about the poor having programs to help them, but they seem to be in favor of every advantage for business owners and corporations. We can go all day with these hypocrisies.

Conservatives think patriotism is blindly following authority..my country right or wrong. Our definition is more like, trying to make the country an even better place to live as opposed to just moving away. Trump supporters are a different breed. They are not conservative. They are saying this country is not great, we kill people too so why be down on tyranical world leaders?, our institutions are not important and we need an "outsider" to single handedly "make America great again" by any means necessary, democracy be damned. They are not even conservative. They are fascists.

It's disingenuous, at best. Downright dangerous, at worst.

I recently read “The Righteous Mind,” which talks about 6 different basic moral instincts. Conservatives place much more importance on loyalty (to our “team”/side/country) and respect for authority. Liberals are people who value care/empathy over all else. Liberals think of challenging an unjust system as holding our country to its ideals. Conservatives are more likely to perceive questioning the status quo as disloyal to the country.

Demonizing has always been a great way to strengthen the limited argument-less vision that you have. Don't bother, It says something about them, not about you.

Deflection. Their ideology cannot be supported, so try and make someone else look. Like the bad guy.

I think the vast majority of Americans, no matter what politics they claim to support, just want what's best for America, and we've all been told different ways of how to get that. The three primary problems are 1) There is no control group, meaning that it's impossible to objectively tell if any given action will have a positive or negative effect on a community vs not taking said action; 2) There are so many different ways to interpret the data that by the time anybody reaches a consensus, it's almost a moot point; and 3) there are entities (people and organizations) that are threatened by accepting certain things as facts, and they are doing their level best to sow confusion in order to prolong their own profitability and/or existence. Sadly, these entities exist on both sides of the political spectrum, though it seems like the world is finally starting to see them for what they are.

Actually that's a dog whistle to energize their base..they then turn around and royally screw them anyway they can..just look at the cheeto in chief sitting in the W.H..

It is just a part of seeign things in terms of black and white. If you aren't with them, then you are against them, and so they demonize you, to try to make you look bad.

It is evident from anyone who has bothered to fact check such conservatives that they have a very warped revisionist idea of history and beliefs in general.