Toulminizing my article on Patriotism

After rereading my article, I found the necessary elements to be considered a Toulmin argument. The claim I made was that to be patriotic, one must question their government’s actions as well as support the troops regardless of the government’s actions. The reasons for this argument were that as citizens of the U.S., we help decide what our government does, and our troops serve to protect our freedoms. A warrant I made was that supporting the troops does not mean that a patriot also supports the war. My backing for this was that a patriot becomes informed with the actions of their government, and takes action to either support or rally against the government’s actions, by using their rights. My evidence for my claim was a series of quotes along with the definition of a patriot. The authority of my evidence ranged from a dictionary, to the president, to academic officials and simple newspaper columnists. My paper contained the consideration of rebuttal for a patriot supporting the government despite the government’s actions. My response to this was that a patriot supports their country, and our country is run by the people, so a patriot does what they see fit rather than what the country sees fit.