Patriotism July 5, 2021July 5, 2021 Our friend Carl read my July 4 weekend post — with the chilling video I hope you got a chance to watch — and reacted, simply: “What if you showed a little patriotism?” In my view, fighting to save democracy is the most patriotic thing we can do. Ideally, it can be done just by spreading the word and turning out to vote — no paramilitary training, baseball bats or bear spray required. Surely defending the Capitol was more patriotic than storming it; yet most elected Republicans refused to vote for a bill honoring the Capitol Police . . . refused to vote to establish a bipartisan commission to investigate what happened . . . on the night it happened, refused to certify the results of the election that Trump’s own officials called the most secure in our history. Watch this one-minute clip? It’s chilling that Trump — clocked in at more than 30,000 lies in four years — has been able to persuade tens of millions that he won by a landslide. Will stories like this . . . A Michigan Republican spent eight months searching for evidence of election fraud, but all he found was lies. . . . have any impact on people like these? Mostly good people, who think they’re the patriots, but who — like Carl, I would argue — have been misled.