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Why do the patriotic ignore problems?

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The most stridently patriotic among my fellow Americans also seem to be the ones who are the most likely to ignore the problems of the United States, and this has confused me for a while. The United Sates has no national health care, ranks 28th in infant mortality, doesn't grant full rights to 100% of its population, has a high-school dropout rate of nearly 1/4 of all students, has crippling debt, a looming Social Security problem, crumbling infrastructure, and so on. Other than our military prowess (whose technological superiority has rendered it top heavy and unable to adapt to new threats) it seems there is little to be proud of lately.

On these boards, I saw a tragic example of a teenager begging someone to give her something to be proud of, and she was met with someone who said (honest to God, you can't make it up) "If you don't like it, then leave!"

So why are the most patriotic among us not the first to trumpet these problems and see them fixed? Why are those who claim to love this country the most always the first to deride and ridicule anyone who point out that other nations might have better ways of doing things?