For America’s Birthday Season, Let’s Take Back the Flag
Photo credit: Paul Goyette via Creative Commons
By Jo-Ann Johnston
Did you know that progressives and moderates and independents can own and fly flags to express patriotism?
That the collection and display of flags is not limited to any one group of voters?
Nobody has a monopoly on the flag. Really.
And now is a good time to talk about this. As we head into midterms, as Flag Day approaches in June, and as our nation’s 250th anniversary draws near in July, let’s acknowledge that the American flag, and art that simulates flags, are powerful symbols of civic virtues. We should be clearer about which virtues, though.
In recent years, it may have seemed that flag ownership and flag displays were privileges owned only by people who passed some kind of litmus test for conservatism. People for whom government is a bad word. People who like the particular brew of evangelical nationalism and military hawkishness that President Trump projects. Their major political action committee conventions went in for the biggest flags and their third-party vendors sell red and blue merch with the most spangles per square inch.
Not that their liberal and moderate counterparts didn’t have flags at their gatherings or rallies conventions – but their displays were milder.
The big gap in the optics contained the tricky subtext that if you don’t wear or carry the flag decor of the political right, then you aren’t a patriot. And that you should go sit down, you wimp.
Sometimes people even say these things out loud, maybe adding a touch of jingoism. We hear people making snide remarks at a ball game or some store parking lots. We definitely see it on social media platforms. Sometimes it takes the form of a tee-shirt slogan or a MAGA cap.
Let’s proclaim our civic virtues
Sometimes, messages take the long way around, into our brains. Say you are exhausted by gun violence or school shootings and international invasions. And you’re really civic minded and want to talk more about these things. But you’re reluctant to fly a flag for fear you could be mistaken for somebody who is aggressive in one-on-one encounters and in global affairs.
That’s mixed up. And giving into such thinking leads to surrender, to silence, when we should be reminding ourselves and others about the patriotism we hold dear and its sources of inspiration.
We can feel pride in our country’s bravery and stretch toward innovation as we recall watching American astronauts collaborate expertly in space with their Artemis II crewmate from Canada, and then land joyously in the middle of an ocean.
And think about how many of us were awed by the images of people marching in Minneapolis and St. Paul, in freezing cold conditions in solidarity with their neighbors, against ICE abuses.
We want the principles and protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 reinstated and will insist that building a multiracial democracy in America is patriotic.
We should get used to talking this way about the patriotism we feel and the virtues that inspire it – while we keep waving our flags to keep people’s attention focused.
So, on July 4 – our nation’s Independence Day – we encourage everyone to display the American flag proudly, in whatever manner you feel comfortable.
It’s due time that we take back the flag, and we can’t think of a more perfect time to build on this movement than the 250th Anniversary of the United States of America!
We, too, want liberty and justice for all, we will say. That’s a patriotic goal.
And we can recall that truism often attributed to Mark Twain: “Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.”
