“Apostasy stalked through the land in the garb of patriotism, and the torch of treason blinded for a while the flame of liberty.”
True devotion to liberty will, in times of crisis, run counter to blind loyalty to any particular leader or ideology.
Ultimately, it is not to the president that we are to remain steadfast, but the presidency; not the symbols and hubris that derives from unthinking devotion to tribal dogma, but faithful pursuit to the founding principals upon which a nation was given form.
A nation of laws makes no man supreme.
It is allegiance to an ideal and not ideology, and constant striving toward that ideal, that is the true mark of patriotism.
All else is but an imposter wrapped in a flag.