What is a Patriot?
How to know if YOU are one!
Patriot. The word evokes a spectrum of reactions, depending on how one perceives the word. In its purest form, the word encompasses a noble commitment to community and a steadfast opposition to tyranny and abuse of power.
Writer Daniel Hannan writes in his excellent book, Inventing Freedom: How the English-Speaking Peoples Made the Modern World:
“A Patriot was someone with a pronounced devotion to liberty and property; someone who stood for the interests of the nation as a whole, rather than those of its supposedly effete ruling class…by patriotism, the American meant being loyal to the people around him. He meant sticking up for his community instead of fawning to the authorities. He meant being prepared to forgo the salaries, pensions, and sinecures that might have come his way had be been readier to ingratiate himself with his governor and the colonial administration…Patriots loudly asserted—and not without justice—that personal freedom and resistance to autocratic power were the distinguishing features of the English-speaking peoples.”
You may be surprised that patriotism begins at the community level. Unlike pretentious leftist daydreams of a utopian world, patriotism is pragmatic and down to earth, with a focus on helping those around us first. True patriotism doesn’t pretend to save the world; it rolls up its sleeves and defends our freedom to grow into our potential as a people and a nation.
There is also a false patriotism. Such people are labeled opportunists, frauds, or RINOS. Hannan describes these charlatans:
“There were some who called themselves Patriots yet were prepared to put personal gain before the national interest. These were the men Dr. Johnson had in mind when he made his best-known, and most misunderstood remark: “Patriotism, Sir, is that last refuge of a scoundrel.
“Johnson’s biographer, James Boswell, who recorded the quip, immediately added, “but let it be considered, that he did not mean a real and generous love of country, but that pretended Patriotism which so many, in all ages and countries, have made a cloak of self-interest.”
An important distinction separating a Patriot from a RINO (or whatever term you choose) manifests itself in a person’s motivation. Anyone motivated by profit, or fame, or political power—well—a scoundrel. Those who serve, those who are willing to sacrifice personal gain in the cause of Freedom are worthy of the name, Patriot.
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Kelly John Walker is an American statesman, accomplished writer, branding professional, and entrepreneur. He is Founder of FreedomTalk, Host of FreedomTalkTV, and a freelance writer published in The Washington Times, Gateway Pundit, The Epoch Times, Townhall, and more..