“What are you, some sort of college Republican?”

The question was straight out of left field. Here I was at a postwork Happy Hour, trying to get to the bar for another Yuengling. What could have made a random stranger assume my political views? I asked my “new friend” this very question and he replied “You’re wearing a f*****g American flag pin. Only Republicans do that.”

This short exchange, to me, encapsulates a much larger prejudice afflicting many of us. Somehow, the quality of being patriotic has been attached to being conservative, or to be more blunt, a Republican. Liberalism and patriotism are, in the minds of many, mutually exclusive. Frankly, this makes no sense to me.