We Should All Fan the Flames of Patriotism, Especially When it’s Hard

Co-authored by Dania Vizzi and Tyler Cochran.

All citizens have a duty to love their country, and disappointment in one’s political leaders should not extinguish the fire of one’s patriotism.

As the Winter Olympics kicked off in Milan this past weekend, several American Olympians expressed “mixed emotions” about donning the stars and stripes and representing their country abroad amidst a fraught political climate at home. These sentiments are reflective of a pair of troubling trends.

On the one hand, an increasing number of Americans are making contingent their love for their country on who is in power. Patriotic fervor among Democrats and independents have continued to decline sharply in recent years reaching new lows in 2025. On the other hand, patriotic sentiments are weakest among younger Americans with a plurality perceiving patriotism as having a net negative impact on the United States. Both these trends miss what patriotism is all about.

Patriotism is not a dogmatic infatuation with the traditions and institutions of one’s country. Nor is it chauvinistic nationalism. Nor is it conditional on the outcome of partisan politics.

Patriotism is a natural affection and a moral duty.

At its core, patriotism is an extension of filial piety. We are commanded to respect our mothers and fathers, and this command carries an implied obligation to similarly honor the sacrifices of all of our forebearers—those who forged the country and communities we are a part of today. This obligation does not mean turning a blind eye to where we might better our nation and set it on a more virtuous path. Rather, it means that we have all incurred debts we can never hope to repay, but we can all choose to adopt a posture of gratitude for that which we have been given rather than a posture of resentment over that which we wish we had been given.

We can all choose charity and humility over greed and pride. We can all choose to have our appreciation exceed our expectations.

What’s more, the love of one’s country is the only way the future of that country can hope to be secured. Love is present wherever the lover wills the good of the beloved. So, to forsake the love of one’s country is to forsake one’s country outright. It is to reject the idea that through one’s own toils it can be made better.

To paraphrase Edmund Burke, an eminent British philosopher active during our nation’s founding, one’s country ought to be lovely. But a country is made lovely by those who battle its ugliness not by those who equate flaws with fate.

It is in those cold and dark times when the furnace of one’s heart goes cold, that the fires of patriotic love are most needed not when its flames should be doused.

No one anywhere at any time has lived in a perfect country. And no one will this side of heaven. But our nation’s shortcomings do not deprive us of our patriotic duties. Certainly, the flames of one’s patriotic fervor may burn more brightly in some times than others. But lack of feeling is not an excuse to avoid duty. So, we should all love our country in whatever way we can. It’s the only one we have.

Dania Vizzi is a member of the America First Policy Institute’s Athletes for America Coalition, and a four-time gold medalist in Olympic skeet shooting for Team USA.

Tyler Cochran is an associate attorney at the America First Policy Institute.