Un-Patriotic and Un-American

'Un-patriotic' and 'un-American' are two terms I cringe at, whether they come from the left or from the right. To use one or the other is to appeal to an undefined audience that can accept or deny the qualifiers at its whims.

Similarly, it is used so freely and subjectively by politicians and commentators that it has lost whatever trace of objective sense it used to possess. Furthermore, the use of the qualifiers purports to suggest that what is American and what is patriotic is fixed—or was fixed—at the inception of the United States. America is nothing if not adaptable and capable of evolving with the times, despite the efforts of certain groups that try to hold it back. Trying to make the reductionistic claim that it is supposed to be what it has always been is tantamount to claiming erroneously that the United States is a Christian country that was founded, developed, and is supposed to be run and inherited exclusively by Christians.