Honestly, we thought that the violence was way over the top. What was going on in Mel Gibson's head? And that "61% Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes? Totally inflated.

Oh wait, not that The Patriot?

Sorry. Let's rewind.

In any political debate, it's everyone's favorite strategy to question the patriotism of anyone whose ideas don't agree with yours. Jackson's trying to make South Carolina feel really bad for threatening to leave the union, and what better way than to suggest that South Carolinians have a warped sense of patriotism?

Your pride was aroused by the assertions that a submission to these laws was a state of vassalage, and that resistance to them was equal, in patriotic merit, to the opposition our fathers offered to the oppressive laws of Great Britain. […] Their object is disunion, but be not deceived by names; disunion, by armed force, is treason. Are you really ready to incur its guilt? If you are, on the head of the instigators of the act be the dreadful consequences-on their heads be the dishonor, but on yours may fall the punishment-on your unhappy State will inevitably fall all the evils of the conflict you force upon the government of your country (36).

Jackson implies that South Carolina's thinks they're patriots like the heroes of the Revolution, but that's really distorting the meaning of patriotism beyond recognition. Instead of being national heroes, they're totally backstabbers and destroyers of the American way of life. He suggests that they'll be ultimately guilty of destroying the Union. We guess that's the most unpatriotic thing you can do.

In other words, the patriot acts as the ideal citizen. Jackson helps to create an image of the patriot that embodies a number of useful qualities: trustworthiness, loyalty, and a sense of obligation to the nation. And who doesn't want to be a patriot? But he's basically asking South Carolina, "you think you're acting like patriots? Think again."