If someone described themselves as an American patriot, what would your impression be of their politics? Would you assume they were right-wing conservatives? If someone described you as an American patriot, would you be offended, thinking they were ascribing fascistic values to you and implying some kind of ignorance or disdain for other cultures and societies? Would you avoid describing yourself in those terms to avoid just such a misunderstanding on the part of others? If the answer to any of these questions is "Yes," you're playing the game of the very people you oppose, and carrying their water for them.
There's a reason words like "freedom," "life," "country," "God," and the like are so prolific in the rhetoric of the right, and it's not because they care about the concepts the terms represent - quite the opposite. They have to say the words over, and over, and over every chance they get as a kind of dispelling act, to inoculate themselves against the power of concepts they hate with every fiber of their being. People who want women to be slaves have to call themselves pro-life, because they're anti-life - they want fetuses to be born only so they can kill them later when there is actually a crime involved. They have to use the word "freedom" in justifying taking it away from everyone who stands in the way of their power. They have to call themselves patriots so they can shove a knife into the heart of America. They have to appeal to God as the ultimate outside authority in justifying their lust for power so that they can rationalize sabotaging the merely human Constitution of our republic.
We know this. We know Republicans are not patriots, not Americans, not freedom-loving or life-loving people, and yet somehow some of us still act as if they are and shy away from the true meanings of these words, choosing instead to be defined by the lie wielded against us - to become nothing more than a negation of the other side rather than the reality that utterly disputes them. Some of us will only define themselves by the things the other side doesn't even pretend to be - the vague, general, high-minded attributes that sound so laudable to people already like us and so abstract to everyone else. This is the "liberal of the gaps" - the person whose only claim to progressivism is to passively champion concepts not yet perverted in some form or another by right-wing propaganda: Defenseless memetic refugees, always ready to abandon any contested psychological space the moment it comes in contact with a hostile ideology.
Well, I personally concede nothing - NOTHING - to the perverted disciples of right-wing psychopathy. They can drape themselves in every American flag ever woven and it won't make them one iota more American in my eyes than the destructive trash of medieval and 20th century German history they emulate, nor me one iota less American than I am. They can spew biblical quotes until the fat, sneering faces above their red necks turn blue, and it won't make them any less the pack of nihilistic, hate-driven garbage they are, nor will it make me (as an atheist) any less a person who understands and appreciates sincere faith. And an eternity of endlessly repeating the words "freedom" and "life" will not change the fact that all they ever do is destroy these things and steal them from others to enrich themselves. None of it will ever deter me from appreciating the reality behind these terms - the actual existence and nature of freedom, life, and the ideals of a republic that affirms them.
In my case, the most fervent efforts of the right have failed. They have failed to make me hate and distrust my own countrymen. They have failed to make me loathe the flag of my country as a symbol of their depravity. They have failed to make me despise and resent real entrepreneurial innovation with their twisted vulture capitalist idea of how businesses should be run. They have failed to make me fear technology with their irresponsible and malicious abuses. And they have failed to make me resentful of government with their constant attempts to turn it into a weapon against The People. I know the true, correct forms and purposes of these things - an America committed to expanding liberty, understanding, knowledge, and opportunity to all people; a flag that stands for this mission; an economy that embodies it; and a system that cultivates and rewards constructive vision rather than predatory cunning. There are places in America where these ideals are weak, and in those places America itself is weak - they are not its defining characteristics anymore than a tumor defines the patient who suffers its consequences.
So decide, both personally and as a citizen of a larger society, whether you are something more than the shadow of your enemies, and in so doing you will decide whether or not your values are sincere or just the default of a shallow mind that just incidentally happens not to be bigoted. Does the world flow from you, or are you forever defining it by what other people do for and to you? If the latter, then you will not be of much use in any time or place, because you will always be a selective mirror reflecting all the bad and thoughtlessly absorbing all the good without understanding or appreciating it. You will despise humanity while benefiting from its goodness and giving far less back than you receive. If you are not the change you would see, then you are the problem you decry.