American Patriot

Waving the flag doesn’t make you a patriot.
The same goes for hashtagging# on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram–owning a flag doesn’t automatically make you better than another American.

A patriot celebrates the flag, but that doesn’t define a patriot.

So what is a patriot?
The dictionary states that a patriot is “a person who vigorously supports their country and is prepared to defend it against enemies or detractors.”
We understand what it means to “defend” our country – it means to serve in the armed forces and/or to defend against all enemies foreign and domestic.
What does it mean to “support” our country?

My interpretation is that it means to support our form of government – that is, a Constitutional Republic.
It means voting to elect your representatives and supporting those elected whether or not they are from your party. You don’t have to agree with them, but if they are elected by a fair vote of the people, you ought to support them. It also means paying your taxes and observing the Constitution & laws of America and respecting the as written.
If you disagree with a law, you can vote to change it, but a patriot must obey the law until it’s changed.

Supporting our country means to give an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay.
It also means earning a fair profit but not an excessive one that shortchanges an allegedly patriotic business owners’ employees.
It means dealing fairly and honestly with both your customers and employees.

Supporting our country means supporting the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
A patriot protects freedom of religion, regardless of his or her own faith.
A patriot protects the right to freedom of speech even though he or she doesn’t agree with the speaker, freedom of the press even though he or she doesn’t agree with what is written, freedom to assemble even if he or she is not part of the assembly, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures regardless of who is being searched, and the due process under the law for everyone.

America's Founding Fathers were its first patriots. They put their lives on the line to create a nation that reflected their ideals. They clearly outlined these values in The Declaration of Independence:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

The Founding Fathers put into law the revolutionary idea that each person's desire to pursue happiness was not merely self-indulgence. They recognized that each person’s pursuit of happiness was integral to the ambition and creativity that fosters economic success. The pursuit of happiness became the driver of the entrepreneurial spirit that defines the American free market economy. By legally protecting these values, the Founding Fathers said that it is the government's role to protect each person's opportunity to pursue their own idea of happiness.

The Founding Fathers protected every American's right to achieve his or her potential. This allows each citizen to contribute their personal best to society. The best way to ensure national progress is to protect citizens’ rights to improve their lives.³ The Founding Fathers recognized that this creates the economic mobility that is fundamental to the nation’s prosperity.

The Declaration continues, "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed." The Founding Fathers rejected kings who inherited their leadership, barons who bought it, or warlords who fought their way to the top with military might. That's why the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution begins with the words "We the People.
Other nations had evolved one way or another: evolved from tribes, from a gathering of the clans, from inevitabilities of language and tradition and geography. But America was born—and born of ideas: that all men are created equal, that they have been given by God certain rights that can be taken from them by no man, and that those rights combine to create a thing called freedom.