An Open Letter to So-Called Patriots
By Krystena LuCastro · Originally published on Medium May 4, 2025
You call yourselves patriots.
You fly your flags high and tight,
chant slogans you barely interrogate,
and stand on the graves of soldiers, founders, and fallen ideals
as if proximity to sacrifice makes you righteous.
But if patriotism means blind loyalty to power,
to party, to personality, to ego
then it is no longer patriotism.
It’s idolatry.
You shout about freedom while silencing truth.
You claim to defend the Constitution
while following someone who tears through its pages
like they were never meant to apply to all of us.
You act as if democracy is safe
so long as you feel secure —
as if it’s a matter of comfort, not principle.
You pretend the system works because it still mostly works for you.
And when it begins to wobble under the weight of corruption,
you look the other way,
because the tyrant you cheer for promises to keep you untouched.
That’s not patriotism.
That’s self-preservation dressed in red, white, and blue.
And still — still — some of us want better.
We want more than symbolism.
We want a country where all people are truly free,
not just theoretically.
We want justice that doesn’t depend on zip codes or skin color.
We want a democracy where the people — not a single man — hold the power.
But this?
This isn’t democracy.
It never fully was.
We’ve had glimpses, maybe.
Hopeful drafts.
But not the real thing.
I was raised to believe in the promise of America.
That if you worked hard, spoke truth, and treated others with dignity and respect, you’d be heard.
But what I’ve seen — what many of us live — is a country where some voices are always louder,
some lives always deemed more worthy,
and some pain always ignored.
And now I see how fragile that promise really was and is.
Maybe it was never meant to include all of us.
But I still want to believe in something better.
Still, I write this not just in protest, but in grief.
Because I do want better. Even for you. Even for this country.
That love that so many of us still feel for America —
it’s not blind, naïve, or performative.
It’s the same kind of love you feel for someone who is actively toxic
and spiraling downward.
The kind of love that aches because you know they could be more —
but they won’t face their truth.
You don’t enable them because you hate them.
You confront them because you care.
You hold up a mirror and say,
This version of you is not okay. You are hurting people. You can be better than this.
Enabling isn’t love.
Clutching this country tighter while excusing its worst behavior isn’t patriotism.
It’s fear in costume.
True love — true patriotism — requires accountability.
It pushes, supports, and demands growth.
It doesn’t cheerlead delusion.
It doesn’t defend dysfunction.
It doesn’t watch a nation slip toward authoritarianism and say,
“Well, let’s see how it plays out. It will probably work out.”
And if you’re reading this and feeling defensive — good. Sit with that. Ask yourself why.
If you’re more offended by my tone than by the betrayal of democratic values,
then you’re part of the silence that lets it all continue.
But it doesn’t have to end that way.
You can choose to wake up. To speak up.
To love your country enough to want it to change.
Not just for you.
But for everyone.
If you still want to call yourself a patriot,
then here’s where to start:
Read the Constitution — without skipping the parts that make you uncomfortable.
Understand that it was flawed from the beginning, but it’s also a living document meant to grow with us.
Stop mistaking criticism for hate. Demanding more from this country doesn’t mean you hate it. It means you believe it could be more than it is.
Learn whose rights are still conditional. Talk less. Listen more. Especially to the people who haven’t had the privilege of seeing America at its best.
Hold your (OUR) leaders accountable — even the ones who look like you, talk like you, and promise you safety. Because real strength isn’t in loyalty to a man. It’s in loyalty to principles.
Define your patriotism by love of all people — not fear of losing control. Because anything less is just domination dressed up in stars and stripes.
You call yourselves patriots.
But if your version of America only works for some,
then you’re not protecting freedom.
You’re protecting the illusion of it.
History will remember the difference.
So will we.
Because ignoring what is doesn’t make what you believe to be true, real.
Read the published version on Medium