When you're limited to the English language, patriot has a certain fixed meaning. Via the media and popular culture, the meanings of words change. When enough people use the word patriot like some dirty word and change the meaning to imply fanaticism, subversion and indoctrination that can change the definition for a whole segment of the population. Lately its the conservatives that have been the target of this new definition.
Of course the Obama machinery has created many patriots via forced indoctrination and while you point out the evils of religion - leftism for many is inseparable from a religion, in the way they force others to comply with their beliefs and seek to destroy all other belief systems that threaten their own.
This video is educational:
The author of the video shows the same technique for brainwashing being used on the Hitler youth which is used on the Obama kids. One could just as easily replace those with the hymns sung in churchs all across the world by children or the chants recited by Muslim children. Humans are insecure. They bond with the group they are raised in and are programmed to see all others as threats. They program their young to follow in their footsteps.
Once one sees this one realizes that politics or religions are all in the same boat - isms used to placate the gnawing insecurity that is man's birthright.
It's easy enough to brainwash children to believe in global warming, Obama as some sainted personality and not a selfish Chicago politician, or Hitler as the nicest man in the world. Adults are not that much harder - because they will want to believe and embrace some group. It's human nature.
The meaning or idea of patriot is not that important. It can be modified by any group who redefines it and shouts the new definition out often enough. The bottom line is this:
How do you best help the cause of human evolution?
What environmental conditions offer man the most freedom and opportunity?
How do you preserve those who would not harm others from those for whom harming others is a staple of their nature?
The answers to these questions are what created capitalism, nation-states and the concept of patriotism. One look around the world and one can evaluate the various nations, political systems, economic systems and theosophies. Which ones have brought about the modern world? Which ones have brought death, suffering and poverty?
That's the bottom line. There ARE better systems out there throughout the galaxy - however, the prerequisite for the next upgrade is a form of sentience a bit higher than our own. Our hardware isn't capable of running the software. So we make do with what's worked best here - A Republic with a Capitalist economic system. If we stray from either and become a democracy where every voice gets equal say, or embrace socialism (or worse communism) then the nation will even more quickly deteriorate.