>>IMO a major flaw in the US system is that the head of state is a political role that leads to the idea that opposition to the govt in hand is refusing allegiance or unpatriotic.
Can you provide a citation for this idea?
What I've seen: "not my president" and "this is war" protestors are refusing allegiance to democratically elected government figures. This is anti-democratic. The POTUS is the POTUS so if you're a US resident, he *is* your president and "waging war" against him, actually is sedition.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1