It's less chic to make this criticism than it once was, but back in the Vietnam era, displays of patriotism lost their luster for many Americans. Patriotism got mixed up with the worship of using force for its own sake. It was as if in the War of Independence, the culture had "switched sides": the kinds of feelings we had about the country had switched from fighting to defend certain unalienable Rights, and to the raw military power of the troops that the British had dispatched to put down the rebellion in the Americas.
Liberals and progressives of a previous generation did not have this conflict in the same way.
It's time we helped the country understand what true patriotism is -- to take back the word, and the concept. To "take patriotism back" from the Red Coats who have trivialized love of country, and made it something contemptible.
What is a patriotism worthy of us, and worthy of the country, on the flip.