Would you bungee cord an American flag over your garbage cans on a windy day so the garbage doesn’t blow away? That’s essentially what’s happening here.
I’d agree if it were a garbage truck, but it’s not. It’s a dump truck.
Would you stake down an American flag over a dirt pile in your front yard?
(I mean, I would if it were the only thing that fit - because I also think this flag reverence stuff is silly)
I didn’t know about her, but at first I thought you might be thinking of Abbie Hoffman, who was arrested and convicted for wearing a flag shirt to a meeting of the House Un-American Activities Committee. (The conviction was overturned on appeal.)
In looking for that picture, I came across this interesting article about the flag, the flag code, and using the flag as clothing.
Lahren is a conservative commentator and TV host. She was the new hotness in that space during Trump’s first term, and is a host on Fox News these days.
The point is that many conservatives get seriously up in arms about what they see as desecration of the American flag, treating it like a holy object…but then go on and do all sorts of things, like wearing American flag clothing, and using a flag as a tarp, that are every bit as inappropriate, at least according to the Flag Code.
There was a US federal law making it illegal to damage or otherwise desecrate an American flag, enacted in 1968. But in 1990, SCOTUS determined that it was unconstitutional and struck it down.
Trump wants to ressurect the law, presumably because the current corrupt majority in SCOTUS would support it. He issued an executive order last August to do so.
The irony is that the people who tend to desecrate the flag most often are right wing nuts in a mistaken attempt to virtue signal. Nothing is more patriotic than having a flag on your toilet paper!
I’m about as far as you can get from a conservative without actually being a communist, but I’m offended by things like beach chairs and face masks made of the flag. And that dump truck cover, too.
OK. So conservatives don’t actually care about the flag, and liberals don’t care that much about the flag, so if nobody cares about the flag, why are we talking about the flag?
Conservatives do make a show of caring about the flag, when it’s liberals doing something with it that they don’t like. It’s why they want to make flag-burning (which has been historically determined to be protected under the First Amendment) illegal.
And, conservatives also make a show of displaying the flag (even inappropriately) as performative patriotism.
Abbie Hoffman arrested for wearing American flag shirt: October 1, 1968
Roy Rogers appeared on Hollywood Palace TV show wearing American flag shirt: January 24, 1970.
My father, the law professor, liked to tell a story about the young woman arrested for wearing an American-flag-print bikini. According to him, supposedly the judge said that she was honoring the flag in her own way and dismissed the charges.
No, they do care about the flag.
But they care about it the same way they care about the Bible, i.e. they worship the fictitious version that exists in their minds rather than the real thing (see also: all that nonsense going on at OU)
Conservatives care about anyone but them “misusing” the flag.
So this is about conservative hypocrisy. But we already know that conservatives don’t care about being called hypocrites - in fact, they revel in it. Hypocrisy is a liberal sin, not a conservative one. Why take their bait?
Whatever, you win.
Even as a kindergartener I never understood why we pledged allegiance to… THE FLAG?
AND to the republic for which it stands!
As a kindergartner, this is what I understood:
“Iplejaljis todflag ofdaunitostaysamamica attoodarapuba forwitchastand wonasha underga wilibibby and jusfaroo.”
It’s not the flag as a piece of cloth that receives the allegiance. It’s the flag as the jurisdiction of the state. Same as the flag of a ship–it’s not a piece of cloth, it’s a declaration of what laws you’re operating under.
Of course, nuances like that are completely lost to the teeming masses, and it becomes idolatry.