Do you know what a nation is?

You hear it clearly in the Pledge of Allegiance: “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Why would the pledge use that word and not the word country? Or the simpler, cleaner term state?

Here is the definition of nation from the Oxford English Dictionary: “A large aggregate of communities and individuals united by factors such as common descent, language, culture, history, or occupation of the same territory, so as to form a distinct people. Now also: such a people forming a political state.”

Read the definition very, very carefully. 

What makes a nation is more than just having a flag. It is more than just having federal buildings, a capital, politicians, clearly defined borders, official holidays, paper money with a seal on it.

No.

Even a people without a country can be a nation. What matters to a nation is what unites them. All of them.

What unites the American Nation is our patriotic commitment to the ideas and ideals laid out by the Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

How do we know? Because America felt itself to be separate from the United Kingdom well before the American Revolution. The American colonies formed a nation before they ever even got the idea to split from King George. That’s the power of a nation.

And when people choose to come to America to make this glorious land their home, they become Americans when they understand our ideals, which they must prove before they obtain official citizenship. Not the other way around.

That’s how we know.

Why is it important to harp on this distinction, though?

Because love of one’s country is a brand-new taboo in American political life.

Democrats think PATRIOTISM is a dirty word. They think it is a sign of ignorance and that patriots are misguided buffoons.

If you do love your country, Democrats will accuse you of promoting NATIONALISM, or having NATIONALIST tendencies. Nationalism refers to making decisions that benefit your country—sometimes at the expense of other countries.

Guess what? You SHOULD make decisions that benefit your country. That’s what conservatives and patriots fundamentally understand that Democrats and liberals will never get through their heads.

Patriotism is a virtue. Democrats think Patriotism is bad. Patriotism is good.

Ask yourself this question: Would Chinese patriots ever once question whether they should stop acting in their own best interest? Would Russian patriots ever once question acting in their own best interest? No. Never. Not once.

So, why do people in the West—Americans, British, Australians, French, Germans, and the rest—let over-educated nonsense push out gut-feeling common sense?

The first priority of any nation is to act in your nation’s best interest. That’s patriotism. We need as much of it as we can get.