If you are like me, you grew up saying the national anthem, setting off 4th of July fireworks with no thought towards legality, watching Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day parades, and being proud to be an American.  I’ve stood up when the song says “I’d proudly stand up next to you”.  We’ve sung God Bless America.  We sing along to the national anthem at sporting events.  I love America.

America to me is many things.  It is apple pie, freedom to worship, respect for the military who fight and die to protect our freedoms.  It is the Bill of Rights, freedom of association, freedom to drink beer, spit, cuss, or not.  America is the freedom to call divine condemnation down upon the President, or pray for divine providence depending on how your political beliefs fall.

Nationalism is defined as patriotic feeling, principles, or efforts.  An extreme form of this is feeling of superiority over other countries.  Guess what, America is superior and I’m OK with saying that.  Our constitution is superior, our military is superior, and our people are superior.  That may be more my truth than actual fact, but I have no issue believing it.  I love America, and I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.

Today, two groups have misidentified American Nationalism as White Nationalism.  The White Supremacists claim us as theirs, and the Globalists seek to disassociate with us. White Supremacists have long attempted to usurp Patriotism because in most countries Nationalism and supremacy go hand in hand.

I love to travel.  I’ve been to 15 countries over 5 continents.  The unique thing about America is that there is no American race.  If you go to Korea, you will find a country filled with Koreans.  Korean is different from Japanese or Chinese.  If you go to Argentina, you will find a country filled with Hispanic Argentinians.  You won’t find a large Russian population.  There are almost no blacks.  If you go to Italy, the country is filled with Italians.  That’s just how most nations work.

Much of America is different.  When I take my kids to the park, we see other mixed families like my own.  We see every continent represented, except maybe Australia and Antarctica.  But my town has an Australian presence too.  That is America.  We aren’t White Supremacists because America is not a white country.  It’s a diverse country made up of it’s citizens.

That is why I can feel comfortable identifying as an American Nationalist.  When I say our people are superior, I mean our first generation immigrants from India as much as I mean our Mayflower descendants. I also mean our African American citizens and our Hispanic citizens.  That is America, and that is what the vast majority on the right mean when they talk about Patriotism and Nationalism.

Jon Stewart got it right when he identified the Liberal hypocrisy of calling all Trump supporters racists.  Yes, there are some.  And they call themselves Nationalists which makes the whole thing very confusing for Globalists.  But they are not representative of the movement that thinks it should be OK to dislike someone for not standing for the anthem.

Kaepernick received a great deal of criticism for his anthem protest.  But it was instructive. It gave us an opportunity to separate the Nationalists from the Fascists.  Fascism is an authoritarian and nationalist system of government.  When Kaepernick refused to stand, Nationalists were split.  Some said he had the right, but was stupid for directing his anger at America in general.  Others said he had the right and it was a good protest that got attention and will hopefully make America better.  Fascists said Kaepernick should be punished, deported, or forced out of the league by the government for taking such action.

If you love America, you might be a Nationalist.  If you think your race is superior, you are a racist.  If you think your race represents your nation, you are a racist Nationalist and you might be a White Nationalist (if that happens to be your race).  If you are a racist Nationalist and think the government should enforce the supremacy of your race, you are a Fascist and could be rightly labeled as a Nazi.  If you think the government should somehow give special recognition to your race, you might be Alt-Right.  Or you could be Alt-Left.  You might be a Black Panther.  KKK aren’t the only racist “Alt” group out there.  If you think America is nothing special, you might be a Globalist or you might just be jaded.

As for me, I’m an American Nationalist.  Nothing more, nothing less.  I’m proud to be an American.  I’m proud of America.  I’m proud of the soldiers of every race, creed, and ethnicity who stormed the beaches of Normandy to fight White Supremacist Fascists.  I’m proud of the melting pot, the traditions that are not mine but belong to fellow Americans, and the freedom of conscience to worship and believe as we see fit.

I’m not blind to America’s problems.  We shouldn’t be.  We should recognize them and fix them because we love America.  If you love your house and your roof leaks, you hire a roofer.  You don’t lock your doors  and board up the windows so no one will see the leak. America isn’t perfect.  But the American Dream is that liberty and Providence leads to improvement on both a personal and national level.  America has sometimes been and continues to be downright evil in some cases. We used to own and sell people as slaves. Today we still allow the killing of the unborn. Racism is still a huge problem. These things need to be fixed. But I can and do love my imperfect country. Let’s fix it together.

I didn’t vote for Trump. I wrote in the name of a Libertarian Republican. But Trump won because of people who view America the way I do.  Not White Nationalists, not Fascists, not Alt-Right, just old fashioned Patriots.