Hate America First?

One of my hot buttons is when people accuse me or other liberals of being anti-American. What actually bothers me the most about it is the short leap from a stance like that to dictator, totalitarian etc. It is the antithesis of American style democracy. What and why the country was formed in the first place. It seems to me that holding that stance would be about as unamerican as you could get.
I had a moment of understanding watching some wingnut the other night though. He was talking about those evil people that had sympathy with or for the enemy. You know he's right. I wouldn't necessarily use the word sympathy for my feelings but I might say understanding of their plight. I won't give you my entire theory on Iraq and terrorism at this point. Suffice to say that I am of the belief that we are not perfect and everything America does is not always right while the 'enemy' is always wrong. To see this as hoping our foes win or actually 'siding' with them is a gross exaggeration. I don't think that is unamerican thought, I think that is RATIONAL thought. We only wear the white hat when we earn it. The people that are pushing America forward, to be better and live up to our ideals, are the Americans I am working with. Blind nationalism is not the way I understand to accomplish this.
Here's the deal, to understand a liberal viewpoint, put yourself in the other persons shoes..whatever the situation. It works nearly every time. I told a prominent Republican in the area this once and he seemed amazed that I though it was not something conservatives did. If they do it seems to me it's done only in a very selective way and not in any overarching populist way. Maybe all this makes me a bleeding heart. So be it. My life can stand for personal happiness or it can stand for something larger for the whole. My spiritual values insist I take the latter course.