I am quite patriotic. I think Sara Sampaio summarises pretty well how most Portuguese feel:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=BJTfI1MaLKI&t=17s

Here is what i have written about patriotism and send of identity before.

 I disagree patriotism is stupid. And I would go as far as claiming it is essential, and that it is very dangerous to dismiss it as worthless.

Identity is perhaps the most fundamental aspect in the fabric of society. In a conflict you will identify with one side and against the other. The Catholic against the Protestant, Shi'a against Muslim, the Ukrainians against the ethnical Russians, Communists against Capitalists.

Of course though there are multiple facets to one's identity. Every person is multiple things at the same time. But the stronger is the bond that unites you, compared to that which separates you, the more likely you are to avoid conflict.

In the end patriotism serves the purpose of stability. It creates a common bond that helps prevent an internal conflict. Without that bond what you will just have multiple "tribes" with a much higher potential for disputes among them. You can see this all too often in many other countries where the sense of patriotism is weak and sense of identity is mostly based on other traits.

And this is why developing an European identity (not necessarily instead but) on top of our national identity is so important and was defined as a major project after WWII (even though some people often forget what the major goal is and why).

And this is also why it is so dangerous to create a society where much of your citizens do not identify nor establish any kind of bond to their host nation (nor supra nation), as we appear to be doing in Europe to an extent.

Of course exacerbated patriotism can be used for bad. It can blind us to one's wrong doings, and make us stuck together when we shouldn't. But the lesson shouldn't be we should avoid it altogether, or keep the state away from it. The lesson should be that it is too fundamental a part of society to be neglected. We must prevent it to be hijacked, by those inside or outside, and we must prevent it from being broken apart. Instead it must be kept functional and healthy at all times, and it is our responsibility to do so.