He's not "painting them as unpatriotic" he's responding to their points about national security.

Their (ULA) argument in a nutshell is #1 it's costly because of national security and #2 because of national security (read: important) you should stick with us as we've been successful.

Elon's argument is based around cost first, and he through in the national security part as a response to the two ULA arguments.

So basically, they started it would explain why national security or patriotism as you put it, is the topic being discussed.

Also, we're talking about launching military satellites. I don't know how national security/patriotism can't play a major part.