Recently, I bought and began to display the American flag at our home. I found one from a company that makes its flags here in the United States but didn’t consider that the standard size might be wrong for our house. When fluttering in the wind by our front door, the flag was so outsized it seemed our modest Cape Cod might tip over.
Family and friends arriving at our house seemed bemused to see it, and some even warily inquired about whether I was feeling okay. My wife was also concerned because I hadn’t discussed the purchase with her, and neighbors might get the wrong idea about our politics. In flying a regulation American flag and doing it without my wife’s knowledge, I had no idea at the time that I’d pulled a Double Reverse-Alito. (Not being in a position to refuse bribe-y “gifts” from billionaire pals, I cannot claim to have pulled a Triple Reverse-Alito.)
Given that the twice-impeached former president and convicted felon Donald Trump and his MAGA wing of the Republican Party are working hand in hand with strongmen in Russia, Hungary, and elsewhere to talk down the future of the United States and seize permanent minority power, I thought it important for us (you know, liberals living, as we are wont to do, in Wokestan) to reclaim the most potent symbol of our democratic republic.
To do so seems essential because many players on the other side have flipped the American standard upside down, in more ways than the Alitos and their fellow insurrectionists (including Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife, “Ginni”) did in January 2021. They have done the same with political comity, the idea of statesman-like compromise, and our other traditional democratic norms, leading to this bizarre, openly fascistic era in which we must listen to a pathologically insecure man-child who admires dictators, scorns the rule of law, and has a Supreme Court standing back and standing by to rewrite the Constitution to allow him to become a dictator himself. Hey, smiling John Roberts is just out there calling balls and strikes as he untethers our democracy.
After two gut punches — the Supreme Court's confused, open-ended decision on presidential immunity and the media’s incessant focus on an awful debate night for President Biden rather than the more than 50 lies told by Donald Trump — how can I still fly the American flag when everything we hold dear seems on the verge of tipping over?
In any case, moderates, liberals, and progressives have varying levels of distrust of any sign of nationalist fervor or performative displays of patriotism. To many of us, peaceably assembling to protest, honoring those who serve the nation, advocating for our least fortunate citizens, subscribing to newspapers to keep up with the issues facing the country and humanity in general, and working to expand voting rights are examples of what a patriot does.
The far right long ago absconded with the American flag. And we just let it go, which makes about as much sense as handing the interpretation of our Constitution, devised and written by brilliant minds, to the decidedly unintellectual and shamelessly ideological likes of Samuel Alito or Clarence Thomas. (They both talk about following the north star of our “history and traditions”? How about ruling non-ideologically and in good faith, which has always been the tradition for being a judge?)
It is long past time for moderate Americans of all political stripes — the vast majority of us — to band together, to not only decry what the right has been doing with the symbol of our nation while supporting an ignorant, hateful man constantly on the take who promises to walk away from our historical allies and put an end to democracy as we know it and jail journalists and his political opponents.
Not only is the flag overly present in commercial uses, but it also is mishandled by the right, sometimes grotesquely so.
The Stars and Stripes have often been used as a symbol in protest. The harm, I’ve always thought, was not from that but from the sheer ubiquity of display — the American standard flapping, as a marketing tool, often in absurdly oversized form, day and night, rain or shine, over big-box stores and used car lots — lessening the impact of seeing the flag aloft appropriately above public buildings like schools, libraries, and government offices, marking them as something special and important, something that belongs to all citizens. The flag may be displayed on the caskets of people who served in the military, the symbol of the republic honoring the sacrifices, sometimes the ultimate, they gave to their fellow citizens.
Not only is the flag overly present in commercial uses, but it also is mishandled by the right, sometimes grotesquely so. It is as if they are attempting in a multifaceted way, as with their continuous campaign of disinformation for their ongoing attempted coup, to discredit its very meaning.
It appears black and shows up on T-shirts, ballcaps, and pickup trucks. It’s emblazoned on underwear and on certain golden sneakers (for a mere $399 and manufactured…where?). The flag hung upside down outside the home of Alito — who as a Supreme Court justice is supposed to, at minimum, appear to be non-partisan — as a sign of distress a week after the insurrection and three days before Joe Biden’s inauguration. He blamed it on his wife (but who’s to blame for that lame flagpole?). And that other pro-insurrectionist flag at the Alitos’ beach house. He placed the onus on his wife again.
Seeing the flag flying anywhere and everywhere is dispiriting. I’ve written about how a guy in our town parades around the suburban streets in a souped-up golf cart with a full-sized American flag flapping furiously behind — a one-man Trump rally. My mind, heart, and soul object to everything about his display of so-called patriotism.
But you can’t blame him for following his vulgar leader’s bad form. Trump nearly sexually assaults the American flag whenever he sees one standing alone — “I don’t even ask, I just start kissing.” It’s revolting not only to witness his performative pawing of the symbol of our country to market himself as a “super-patriot” but also to consider that his supporters enjoy that kind of oafish display.
Having received five deferments from military service, Trump more than earned his nickname “Cadet Bone Spurs,” an appropriate moniker laid on him by someone who sacrificed much in service to her country. Later in life, Trump went on to further discredit himself, both as a twice-impeached president and as a commander-in-chief who regularly denigrated those who had served and threatened our NATO partners. Remember when he accepted a Purple Heart from an actual veteran? Any other politician doing that would have had to find something else, outside of public service, to do for a living.
For heaven’s sake, the guy couldn’t accept that he lost the last election and was such a baby about it he left Washington rather than attend the inauguration of the new president.
One can imagine flag pins Donald Trump should be wearing on the lapel of his poorly fitting suits — the Russian, the Hungarian, and the Confederate battle flags come to mind — but our flag is, without question, not one of them. Trump incessantly claims that without him in charge, the United States would be a wreck, a failed country, an apocalyptic disaster. No one in history has psychologically projected more about his own plans or has demeaned the presidency and the country in the eyes of our allies as much as Donald John Trump. And that is only partly why American historians rank Trump the worst of all presidents.
Speaking of which, the next time you see Trump sporting his “45” cap (or his wishful “45-47” version), remember, that’s his historical ranking. Dead last. Trump loves to say that Biden is the worst president in history (as he did at the first debate) for the same reason he is driven to incoherently burble about “the Biden crime family.” He is always the schoolboy with the dopey “I-know-what-you-are-but-what-am-I?” retort.
The American flag ought to get a restraining order against Trump.
The rules about displaying the flag state that it should not be used as clothing or in advertising in any way, but apparently we need to add that the American flag must not be groped or used for self-aggrandizement. When it comes to Trump, the Red, White and Blue ought to get a restraining order.
And many on the right, given their out-in-the-open allegiance to other countries like Russia and Hungary, have simply been misusing and even abusing the flag for years. Police were beaten and stabbed with American flags during the insurrection at the Capitol, where other “patriots” carried their preferred flags, most for Trump or the Confederacy, which, as everyone knows by now, is essentially the same thing. Debasing the national standard goes hand in hand with how Republicans have vilified government service for decades. Like so many things they say they care most about — family values, the rule of law, freedom from government interference in private life, loving one’s country — it’s all been one long con.
Clearly, none of that means anything to them now. As Salon’s Amanda Marcotte wrote about attacks by the right on Dolly Parton, “Under the leadership of Donald "Make America Great Again" Trump, Republicans have grown to loathe most everything they used to hold in high regard.” How can you call yourself a patriot when you scorn Dolly, fanboy the Russian president, and cheer as your leader calls the United States a failed country? It’s in keeping, though, with the right’s brand of gaslighting and fearmongering the public 24/7. That they’d eventually go after an American icon like Parton is no longer surprising. It is typical projection when bogus Christians, such
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