Would people have cared that Kid Rock was wearing the flag?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Seems like few people remember that during that infamous Super Bowl halftime show, before Janet’s duet with Justin, Kid Rock performed wearing an American flag; a real flag, not just a piece of cloth with stripes and stars. He wore it as a poncho, to be precise, with a hole cut in the middle, and it was also dragging on the ground.

Now, suppose the wardrobe malfunction hadn’t happened. Would the flag-as-garment display have been remarked upon at all? I strongly suspect that it would not have prompted a fragment as much outcry as the OMG A BREAST THE SKY IS FALLING incident, but is it reasonable to think that it would have raised some eyebrows?

I’m not saying I want to go back to the time when people would have been calling him out for treason, because a lot about those times were bad, but it really bugs how flag etiquette seems to have gone completely by the board since 9/11. Now it’s like any display of the flag is wonderful, no matter how blatantly in violation of the flag code, and IMHO, that’s sloppy at best and hypocritical at worst. Put some effort into your patriotic displays, for potato’s sake.

2

I’m wondering if he wasn’t consciously making a negative statement by displaying the flag the way he did. I’m against flag laws in any way, shape or form. If you want to follow some etiquette rules for your own benefit, that’s fine. But the flag is a symbol. Plenty of people who love their country deface flags because they think the government doesn’t love it enough. Nothing wrong with that.

3

I didn’t watch the Superbowl and this is the first I’ve heard of Kid Rock’s defacing a flag and wearing it. I believe there would have been a clamor over it, but not as big as the clamor over Justin Timberlake’s undressing of Janet Jackson.

4

I do remember some grumbling and letters to the editor about Kid Rock’s dissing the flag. I’m not big on flag etiquette, myself, but I noticed it. KR’s whole persona is built on disrepectful behavior and thumbing his nose at the world. Dissing the flag fits right in.

5
      • All things considered I’d rather Kid Rick stick to defacing the flag and stop making crap music.
        ~
6

I always heard that Kid Rock was pretty conservative or at least not politically liberal. If that’s true, he could probably get away with it better than a radical liberal entertainer just based on motives people assume.