Patriots and Nationalists
It's a fine line between patriotism and nationalism. According to Webster's dictionary, the only distinction between the two is degree, that nationalism is an "extreme" form of patriotism. In my mind, a patriot is someone who loves his or her country, someone who is willing to serve his or her country, and someone who sees his or her country for what it is, warts and all, and still wants to be here. A nationalist is someone whose love has become fanatic, contingent almost on being number one. Someone who believes that no matter what happens, fidelity to the motherland is more important than anything else. To a nationalist, it is more important to win than to be right. If it weren't so bloody clear that McCain is going to get trounced in November, last night at the Republican convention would have given me an ulcer. While the Democratic party convention (to my surprise actually) was filled with speeches about what we, the patriots who love this country, can do to ...