Supporting Democrats is the Most Patriotic Thing You Can Do Right Now– A Navy Wife’s Perspective

By Christina Elliott

I know what it means to love our country—not just through supporting my husband in his active duty service, but through the sacrifices our family makes to support him. Patriotism is about standing up for the values that make America truly great: democracy, freedom, equality, and justice. And that’s exactly why being a Democrat is the most patriotic thing you can do.

Defending Democracy

My husband and I each took separate oaths to protect and defend our constitution. Him, in his active duty service, and me, as an attorney now barred in two states. As a former independent voter, I know now that no one supports these privileges our constitution affords more than Democrats. They are the party consistently committed to protecting voting rights, fighting against voter suppression, and ensuring free and fair elections are the most fundamental ways that we can uphold our democracy. Democracy isn’t just something we have; it’s something we do.

Fighting for the People Who Serve

Being a military family means understanding the importance of good leadership. Democrats have consistently fought for better pay, healthcare, and benefits for service members, veterans, and their families. Programs like the GI Bill, improved VA healthcare, and protections against predatory lending for military families exist because Democrats fought for them. If we truly support our troops, we must support the policies that take care of them. We also must understand the danger that violating operational security– OPSEC– represents. Our Secretary of Defense recently failed the United States in a way that not even civilians are allowed to do without consequence. By sending state secrets to a civilian, he showed a complete disregard for the sacrifices our service members (and their civilian family members) make by acting above the law. Why is this important? Because…

Here on Whidbey, Patriotism Runs Deep

Here on Whidbey, we enjoy a special privilege shared with only a handful of other places in the world—we have a small Naval Information Operations Command (NIOC) site, which means that the men and women you share the grocery store aisles with carry the burden of safeguarding the highest intelligence of the world’s greatest military.

Unlike civilians, they are restricted in what they can share at any given time. For example, posting an otherwise innocuous picture with their family on a trip to Hawaii could reveal their command isn’t located somewhere, or deployed. OPSEC, or ‘operational security’ as it’s more formally known, is the commitment every service member—and their family—makes to the United States. It’s unique in that it commits civilians to protect the United States’ secrets, without any formal contract or oath.

That means that I, a civilian married to an active duty sailor, am better at keeping critical secrets of the U.S. military than some of our own elected political leaders. And yet, time and time again, we see those in power mishandle sensitive information, while our neighbors, friends and spouses pay the price for their mistakes.

The True Meaning of Patriotism

Patriotism isn’t about blind loyalty; it’s about striving to make America better. It’s not about looking backwards at what made us great a long, long time ago– before all citizens had access to things like bank accounts, or the ability to own property.

It’s about standing up for what’s right, even when it’s difficult or you don’t agree with everything one side or the other does. It’s about ensuring that the country we love lives up to the highest standards. And by choosing a party that respects our service members– by choosing to be a Democrat– it means fighting for a nation that truly benefits its citizens.

Being a Democrat isn’t just political—it’s patriotic.