“…Scholarship has shown that what it means to be “American” is contentious and differs widely within the population (see Huddy, 2001), and the public incorporates multiple, often conflicting creedal notions of American‐ness (Schildkraut, 2007). But if the political climate privileges candidates who are particularly American, that necessitates that they define what being “American” means—a move with severely divisive potential (Stuckey & Hoffman, 2006). If war records and flag pins are taken to be indications of love of country, of true “American‐ness,” and if that definition of the trait is privileged in politics, what happens to other conceptions of American‐ness and patriotism that may not fit the mold: are citizens who have not served in war necessarily less patriotic?…”