Patriotism is a feeling of love and devotion to one's own homeland (patria, the land of one's fathers). The latter would put aside the country's well-being in a mundane, non-moral sense, and would focus instead on its distinctively moral well-being, its moral identity and integrity. As an instrument of survival, patriotic leanings have, at various times, upheld our republic, beginning with the Revolutionary War and including World War II, when
democracy was under assault.
If you're full of patriotism, you're full of love for your country. More than half of all Americans 18 and over volunteer an average of 2.5 hours a week—that's almost a hundred million people donating services equivalent to four million full-time jobs. War and patriotism are often two sides of the same coin because warfare produces strong feelings of nationalism as well as challenges to the nation's culture and society.
By admiring or purchasing these patriotic artworks, ultimately citizens show respect to land marking achievements of the nation and the legendary figures and freedom fighters who contributed their lives in the nation's formation and development. It has become an acceptable substitute for actual patriotism, which means love for the people and not a hatred of something.
It should be the work of a genuine and noble patriotism to raise the life of the nation to the level of its privileges; to harmonize its general practice with its abstract principles; to reduce to actual facts the ideals of its institutions; to elevate instruction into knowledge; to deepen knowledge into wisdom; to render knowledge and wisdom complete in righteousness; and to make the love of country perfect in the love of man.
For example, many Americans saw it as their patriotic duty to fight against totalitarianism in Europe, while others—at least until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor—felt that the United States ought to stay out of the war. This fact makes America a nation that demands moral reflection by its citizens (Torres 2001).