That sentence would be better.

I think it could be healthy to be proud of a group project you participated in.

That’s totally ok, but it’s not really patriotism, is it? You are proud of an accomplishment. Of a real thing that you did/were part of, that actually changed something.

That’s pretty disconnected from patriotism, which means “I am proud of my country because it’s my country”. Patriotism is hollow. It’s being proud of something by default without anything worth being proud of.

Consider how it is absurd for a normal person to run for public service

In my country it’s quite common that normal people run for lower offices, like district or city level.