the United States is a country founded on the principal that the mechanism of government is fundamentally evil and needs to be constantly scrutinized, distrusted, and criticized. That's why we have a free and open press, elections all the way from country to federal government, and branches of government that can overrule each other. Loyalty is to compatriots, not to the mechanisms of government. Those aspects of our country, to the extent that the citizens of the United States (or any other country) successfully maintain them, are worthy of respect.

It's incorrect to equate distrust of government for hatred of a country. The reason this country is loveable is because it was forged by distrust of power.

I actually find your equation of love of government with love of country to be mind-blowing strange. What on earth?