Merriam’s Dictionary defines patriotism as: “love or devotion to one’s country.” But how do we define people who deeply love a part of their country—the part that’s exactly like them—but utterly loathe all the other parts? What happens when most of their country consists of ‘the others’ they so detest? Are these people patriots?

Ultra-conservatives believe they are patriots and consider their opponents unpatriotic. Many, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, say that conservatives are the ones who inhabit “real America” and their foes are merely citizens of “the fake America.” However, ultra-conservatives are not the majority in this country. If ultra-cons don’t identify with “fake America,” they don’t identify with most of America.

Ultra-conservative ideology is not nationalist to begin with—it is primarily religious and cultural. Ultrra-cons do not recognize the real “nation” per se, as it exists beyond their dogma or culture. They are obsessed with the idea of Christianity’s predominant or exclusive role in American politics.
Ultra-conservatives falsely believe that America is a “Christian nation.” However, as the Constitution states,“There shall be no establishment of religion”—the U.S. is not a Christian nation. America’s founders were Christian, but they did not found this country on Christian ideology and did not want to live in a theocracy. In fact, our founders were much less religious than most people of the time.

All of this is not to confuse ultra-conservative dogma with more mainstream conservative ideology, which is indeed quite nationalist in a way that even offsets many liberals. However, the Republican Party is also confused about the distinction between mainstream and fringe. This has separated the party into two and may perhaps be a reason why, according to most polls, only around 20 percent of Americans identify as Republicans. Moderate Republicans think the party is too conservative and ultra-conservatives think that the party is too moderate, both becoming independents.

Most ultra-cons do not “hate America,” although most do hate “the government,” which may be a mental surrogate for the larger country. But when 20 percent of a country distrusts or dislikes the remaining 80 percent, it is clear who the anti-patriots are.