Whose Flag Is This, Anyway?

Starting about the time of early Ronald Reagan, the Republican Right played capture-the-flag with Old Glory. If you were a true patriot, you gave all your speeches before massed American flags and wore the symbol of one in your lapel. And, of course, to be a true patriot meant also that you were a member of the Republican Right. No other Americans admitted to the brotherhood and sisterhood of patriotism.

Predictably, this would come to an accusation -- what substitutes for serious debate these days -- that Senator Barack Obama was not wearing a flag pin and therefore, ipso facto, was no patriot.

So, here's a modest proposal. All of us who support Barack Obama for president should now wear flag pins. This will signal that we are all just as patriotic as anyone on the right. And it will signal that we are all for Obama. If we all do this, then when we see a flag pin we will know we are seeing another Obama supporter.

Go right out now and buy a pocketful of flag pins. Give them to all your friends. Show your support for America and for Obama. I've got mine on. It's our flag too!

But, you might ask, what about those flag wavers on the right? That's their problem.

Comments

[Mover]

See if you can get Barack to wear one first.

Good luck with that.

[LiberTLover]

He has been wearing one for months that was given to hin by a veteran. But thanks for playing.

[tenilla]

I think someone should present this excellent idea to the Obama campaign.

I plan to wear a flag pin whenever I wear my Obama 08 baseball cap.

[allwrite]

Looking for one that also has "Obama 08' text.

[jojojo]

NO!

It will signal that, to be truly patriotic, one must wear a pin.

That's BS!

[Rog49Thomas]

Brother Hart you're only half right.

The flag lapel pin is just the first step.;

The more important second step is to mouth empty platitudes and nationalist slogans.
However, don't worry, a true Republican patriot may natter on and on about supporting the troops or building national security.

But as evidenced by President Pan's Administration, the talk is what matters. One isn't really expected to implement policies that achieve these sentiments.

In fact, one may implement policies that achieve exactly the opposite as long as one has a flag pin on one's lapel and a mouth full of slogans.

[Mover]

"The more important second step is to mouth empty platitudes"

He's already been doing that.

When does the substance start?

[thebeerdoctor]

I think Mr. Hart should wear a pin that says: "catch me if you can".

[breakfast]

Can I wear a double pin, one with the U.S. and Israeli flag, like Obama wore as he bowed and scraped before AIPAC.

I'm having a hard time getting over that.

[sa]

there was a dylan song that had this lyric:
"patriotism is the last refuge, to which a scoundrel clings.."

the lapel pin thing is a joke.

why do car dealerships have 40ft. flags flying out front?
the most seedy aspect of capitalism (aside from healthcare)
are car dealers and used car dealers -
it is known to be the realm of lies -
that is why their flags are so big.

once you sport a flag (or a cross),
you can get away with murder.

[Mover]

Then Dylan got it from here...

"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.­"
- Samuel Johnson, quoted in Boswell's Life of Johnson
English author, critic, & lexicographer (1709 - 1784)
From the quotationpage.com

[Krikkit]

Better idea. Let's not.

There are more important things to draw attention to, like, name ANYTHING else. Mr. Hart, this is a bone-head idea.

[AtTheMoon]

stupid lapel pin signaling, eh? that's what politics really gets boiled down to, tribal grunting, and a show of colors.
we deserve the idiotic government we have.

[BlackbirdHighway]

I'll wear a flag pin if I can find an anti-GOP pin to wear with it.

I've noticed something interesting. I live in a very conservative area. In 2000 and 2004 there were many Bush signs in peoples lawns everywhere when I drove around town. You couldn't find a Gore or Kerry sign anywhere.

This year, I haven't seen one single McCain sign. I've seen one or two Obama signs, but mostly there are Expeditions, Excursions, Suburbans, F-150s and the like parked in folks yards with "For Sale" signs.

It took a long time, but I think people are finally starting to get it.

[francoise]

Like many foreigners, I can't understand the irrational American respect for a piece of cloth.

Patriotism, like religious faith, or fear of the barbarious foreigners, are tools to manipulate people into obeying the rulers. They aren't based on reason, but on emotion.

I remember having read about an American artist in New York who put the flag on the ground and visitors had to wipe their feet on it to get in. I remember having read that this art work provoked a huge polemic. I thought it was weird that people would be so serious about a doormat just because it was colored like an American flag.

Perhaps I could make much money by starting a business in Iraq or Iran selling doormats in the colors of an American flag ;-)

We're born here or there through pure luck and blind chance. We try to make the most out of it, but our place of birth is not what is important and what defines us. There are *ssh*les and lovely people everywhere, and their qualities don't depend on their nationality.

[squander123]

I agree Francoise - no other democracy in the world shoves its national flag onto everything like the US (though quite a few non-democracies do, which is an interesting parallel. China springs to mind).

I've never understood it, and it's become almost pathological since 9/11. Seriously, why does it happen? Why is there a flag on ever car-dealership (as pointed out by another poster) in the US? Why do people fly the flag over their own homes, for goodness' sake? It's deeply, deeply strange.

[iswideopen]

If it means you have to be a war-mongering, hateful bigot with no morals to be patriotic, no thanks, I pass, lapel flag pin included. Once a theif, always a theif.

[Chuckwheat]

Wear it upside-down. Our political system's in distress, needs rescuing.

[LiarLiarIraqsOnFire]

How about we show that we're actually more patriotic by wearing CONSTITUTION LAPEL PINS!

[EvgenyLibek]

Yes, exactly -- show where our true allegiance lies.

The flag is but a battle-tested symbol of what we must always fight for: our Constitution.
This, above all else, assures the preservation of liberty.

Yet our Representatives in the Congress (you hear me Dan Lungren?) would trample this sacred document, as if, in the glare of Sadaam Hussein, our liberty might not stand the night; as if it had not lasted far darker nights in our long struggle through history.

The Decider and his Enablers must atone.

I'll be wearing "Liberty or Death," and pulling the plug on the GOP's Empirial fantasy in the voting booth.

[jaundicedview]

You are SO, SO right! Just need the first line in it's unmistakable script:

WE,THE PEOPLE

I would wear that!