What is an AMERICAN Patriot?

by Gary Clark
Liberty@wtw.org
July 20, 2001

One thing MOST Americans seem to consistently fail to understand is what a American PATRIOT really is. 

An American patriot is NOT somebody who supports his government. If that's what the American definition of a patriot were, we would not have been calling George Washington, Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, James Madison, Thomas Payne, John Hancock and all the rest of them "patriots" would we? Those true patriots were all men who openly advocated revolt against THEIR government. That's what made them American patriots in the first place.

THEIR government, the one oppressing them in 1775, was headquartered in London, England.

MY government, the one oppressing me in 2001, happens to be located in Washington D.C.

Aside from that, there is little difference.

To me, the citizen who

• runs around waving the American flag, 
• pledges his support to the government in Washington, 
• and goes along with what that government says 

is the same thing as what the colonials used to call a "loyalist." We Americans never used the word "patriot" to describe anybody who was a loyalist. The very term "loyalist" meant somebody who was "loyal" to the government in London and to King George III. A "loyalist" was the then equivalent of today's "statist" in that they supported the (then) state which was (then) the British government.

The true American patriot is the antithesis of a loyalist. 

The true definition of what an American patriot ACTUALLY IS can be determined only by examining what those men who signed the Declaration of Independence (and their followers) ACTUALLY DID. So, let's learn what a true patriot is by taking a look at what those true patriots actually did.

1. They spoke and wrote profusely and published their beliefs and opinions clearly stating the truth, that their government was tyrannical and guilty of crimes against the liberty of the common man. They openly denounced the government and its agents, not only in print but in public speeches and gatherings. They did this despite great personal risk for doing so. This went on for some time prior to 1775.

2. They conspired, both in secret and later openly, to overthrow and revolt against their government with the aim of throwing it out and establishing a new and different governmental system. In doing this, they were branded as traitors and seditionists by their government... but they did it anyway, despite the risk.

3. Eventually, after their government had fired the first shots, they took up arms AGAINST their government and began killing it's policing agents, who were the armed force enforcing the oppressive dictates of their government.

All these things were done by a small number of men, against great odds and at great personal and economic risk, but they did them anyway and that's what made them true American PATRIOTS. They did these things, I might add, in an age when documents had to be all handwritten and communication was by means of letters carried on horseback.

Those who would call themselves American patriots need to stand ready to do the same things today that our forefathers did in 1775, and we'd better be ready to be called conspirators, traitors, seditionists and (today's buzzword) terrorists by the government loyalists we oppose. We must not allow them to get away with branding us with those labels. Labels are the instruments tyrannical governments all use to thwart opposition. Any government born out of a revolution, as was ours, can be replaced by the same means. And it doesn't take a majority to do it, just as it didn't in 1775. When you see or hear patriots branded by the establishment using such terms, remember this. The present American government and its establishment press using such labels here are no different from the government of Communist China branding its dissidents as "counter-revolutionaries".

A lot of people who frequent Internet websites such as this one like to think of themselves as patriots. Are you? Unless you are NOW ready to do the things the REAL patriots did you are not, in fact, a REAL patriot. And it seems to me that at Ruby Ridge and Waco and several other anti-American events the present government has already fired far more shots and killed far more citizens than did the British government at Lexington and Concord in 1775.

Gary Clark is a writer, small business owner and staunch defender of the right of every individual to own, bear and use ANY type of weapon that can be carried on the person. He lives in Las Vegas and can be reached by e-mail at Liberty@wtw.org.