Step number one in a war of words...
...is to "annex" the words your opponent uses against you and re-task them, so to speak. It makes the discussion a little more difficult and much more frustrating for at least one of the parties, but then language is a dynamic thing, I suppose.
My feeling is that the word "Patriotism" has long been overused as a weapon by people of all political stripe anyway, and was loaded with all sorts of convoluted and unhelpful baggage. It's just one poor little word, carrying all that weight. Maybe we should let it rest for a while.