"Criticizing the President is criticizing America, and criticizing America is criticizing me!" Conservatives in 2004, Liberals in 2024

If you confuse criticism of citizens as criticism of the government, you're probably some kind of racist. You can just call out the government and not say it's the fault of the citizens directly.

If you confuse criticism of your government with criticism of yourself as a person, and it's a personal attack, you're a nationalist. If your leader said a bad take where people call it out and you consider it as if you personally said it, maybe stop being a form of parasocial weirdo for a politician who doesn't know your name beyond "dipshit voter who will defend his actions"

You can mock my government, it's not mocking me. You can mock me, it's not mocking my government. You can mock both.

When the person I voted for does a bad thing, I consider it a moral failing on them and a lesson for me to do better research on who I support.

I don't understand why that's such an issue.