Time for Republicans to Surrender our Flag
The notion that Trump's America-attacking Republicans represent our ideals is patently absurd
(WRITER’S NOTE: Happy Flag Day, friends. I am still battling through another blasted case of COVID, so things are little more jumbled upstairs than normal. Travel seems to be the culprit. Please be careful and take the prudent precautions when mixing in large gatherings, because this terrible virus is still with us four years later ... In the choppy wake of Supreme Court Justices, and Republicans in general, continuing to disrespect our flag, I wanted to send this one out again. As I write, I’m not much of a flag guy, but I do know which party best deserves to fly the Red, White and Blue. -Regards, Earl)
I’m not much of a flag guy, but I do want to wish everyone a Happy Flag Day today ...
Don’t get me wrong, I like our flag OK. Betsy did a nice job with it, but I bet she could have never pictured all those stars getting jammed into a little box like that. The box could stand to be a bit larger.
The colors are nice — though red, white and blue are a little overdone in the flag department, if you ask me.
I do like seeing it wave on a brilliantly sunny day with a deep blue sky as a backdrop. Beautiful. I’d rather people didn’t burn it — seems kind of extreme — but hell, some points are worth making no matter what, I guess.
My point here is, it’s just a flag. Worse than burning it to me, is using it as a political tool. If you love your flag a whole lot, according to too many people these days, you love your country a whole lot. Whoever loves their flag more, loves their country more.
This is completely ridiculous of course, but a lot of folks believe that. I believe it is simply easier for them to love their flag than it is to truly love their country. That is clearly the case with the twice-impeached, convicted felon, Trump, who has been known to literally suffocate and abuse the thing one minute, while leading an attack on our country, and mocking war heroes like the departed John McCain the next …
And, hey, if you are taking any issue with me here:
a) I don’t care.
b) I proudly served my country.
As a boatswain mate and assault boat coxswain, I would on occasion run the thing up the mast of our ship at sunrise, and take it down at sunset when we were underway. Sounds easy, but you try doing that without it touching the deck while it’s blowing a gale and the ship is tipping port to starboard about 15 degrees each way.
The thing never looks better than when making a bold red, white and blue impression leading a NATO task force. Now those folks look up to our flag. Used to anyway …
Thing is, I like the flag OK, but I love my country a lot.
Lately I have been giving this whole flag thing renewed thought.
I mean if anybody deserves to have the flag representing them it’s the Democrats in this country. There can be no question about this.
So I think I’d like to take it back and safeguard it until the Republicans start acting like real Americans, and not mean, hateful bigots, who want to attack our country, beat up our earth and animals and anybody who doesn’t look like them.
The notion that MAGA Republicans represent America’s ideals is patently absurd.
Can you imagine what Ronald Reagan would have thought watching one of these Trump hate rallies adorned with all those flags? We know what McCain thought.
No, they don’t deserve the American flag, just scorn.
I was protesting a few months ago. As an aside, God I love protesting. Best thing to happen to me since November 8, 2016. Misery loves company, I guess, but it sure is nice to get outside with like-minded folks who believe pretty much what you do — love and equality for starters.
Anyway, there were some bad dudes in town carrying semi-automatics. They were white supremacists making some kind of demented point on behalf of Republicans. Well, there was about 100 of them and a few thousand of us. They had the guns but we had all the power. They also had American flags — I mean a mess of ’em. We didn’t have many on our side. Just a bunch of pink hats, clever signs, and righteousness.
I can tell you who represented the true ideals of America, though.
And if the flag represents us and those ideals, we need to take it back. We don’t need to have the thing to use it as a political tool, but simply because it deserves better.
A woman said as much to me at that one-sided rally. She said: “Why have they claimed the flag? Why should they fly it? They’re mean. We’re nice.”
I said: “Huh.”
That was all I said till now.
So for now on, the American flag will represent Democrats. We’ll be glad to share it, just as soon as Republicans start acting like Americans.
(D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. Follow @EarlofEnough and on his website.)
The flag has been co opted by the Trump party. As someone who spent 30 years in the military defending it, supporting it and of course flying it, i am now skeptical of those who display it inappropriately all fu*king year. It’s a signal now. And we know damn well what it is signaling. It’s a tell for what team you’re on now and it’s sickening to those of us that bled for it.
Thank you for this! I echoed this same thing before myself. I also would have never claimed to be a flag person, not that I would ever abuse a United States flag. My mother has always been a big fan of red white and blue and eagerly presented us all with appropriate attire on July 4th each year. After MAGA co-opted the attire it was like a plague on the red, white, and blue. Who would be caught dead in the stuff and get mistaken for one of them! YIKES!! Then one day, I thought just as you are...Why have I allowed these rude, unhappy folks to take away the symbol of my country. I'm not the one trying to overthrow the government, hang leaders of our country, and cause general unrest. So that was that! The flag AND the color red for that matter are being taken back by my family. I'm not saying we don't throw a little flair in there sometimes to let you know the causes we do support, but yeah...sorry peeps, the flag belongs to the true Americans!!