What is a Patriot?

What is a patriot?  Someone who loves their country?  Yes!  Someone who waves the American flag?  Maybe.  Someone who sing patriotic songs like "America the Beautiful"?  Sure!  Someone who starts a war without being attacked?  Uh, it doesn't sound very patriotic.  How about someone that screams about having to pay taxes that pay for our Army, Navy, Air Force, Interstate Highways, Forest services, Fire, Police, Coast Guard and a lot more, while at the same time saying " Keep your hands off my Medicare"?  It is easy to scream about having to pay taxes but, should you be screaming about it while just a few months earlier you were screaming about how the government wasn't doing enough for you when the oil was flowing into the gulf!  Is this patriotism?  Hmmm.  Many of the pundits on the radio talk about freedom, flag waving, and patriotism but that is where it ends talk, all talk.  Their real job is to make ratings and "Punk you".   The country was really founded on the freedom to express ideas wasn't it?  The freedom to practice your religion no matter what it is, even the Muslim faith; the idea that an Americans should actually be able to pursue happiness!  What a great thing.  Pursuing happiness.  I think it is really hard to pursue any kind of happiness when you have Republicans that want to ship all of our jobs overseas. Pay the lowest possible wages; they even want to lower the minimum wage that most families cannot live on.  They want to put most of the tax burden on you, pretend to care about the national debt while they increase it by giving the rich almost a trillion dollars to put in their pockets at your expense.  It says in the bible you will know them NOT by their words but by their deeds.  The deeds of the Republicans are many.  I know many people believe that Republicans are the voice of family values but, lets take a look at that.  On the surface it sounds really impressive to say I am for family values, against abortion, for personal responsibility, and financial restraint.  WOW, I am for most of those ideals.  The problem is the Republicans talk about that stuff but they do not practice much of it.  First off  No one makes a woman have an abortion.  It is a very difficult decision that responsible women make based on their circumstances.  The dirty little secret is that even Republican women get abortions.  No one makes a women do it.  It is not an easy thoughtless choice.  It is one of the most difficult decisions anyone can make.  They make the choice and it should be their choice not the decision of Republican hypocrites.  I don't even need to go into the history of the many, many, many GOP scandalousness stories; and that is just in the last 12 months.  So the idea that the Republicans are the voice of family values is a total joke.  Lets look at the idea that Republicans are fiscally conservative with your tax dollars.  If this were really true they would HAVE to be for letting the Bush tax cuts expire and reduce the national debt.  But NO,  they want the rich to keep the tax cuts that they had 10 years ago, 5 years ago, 2 years ago, last year, that are somehow supposed to create jobs now.  Why will they create jobs next year if they have not created them over the last 10 years.  ASK THEM!  They don't have an answer for that or for the cuts in spending they pretend they will make.  Stop listening to what they say, and start watching what they do.  You will know them by their deeds NOT their words!  I think a patriot is someone that loves their country and their country is made up of many, many, people with many different faiths, looks, traditions and a REAL patriot is someone that has his or her brother or sister AMERICANS back!  Not the one that is reaching into his or her pocket to fill their own.