McCain campaign disrespects American flag

Via Americablog and KSDK St. Louis



I. Am. Livid.

For the last 5-7 years Republicans and other conservatively identified assholes in this country have question the patriotism of liberals like myself who questioned policies put forth by the Bush Administration. And now, during an historic presidential campaign, those taking down the United States flag after a McCain rally have the audacity to allow it, not just to drag on the ground, (an oversight that could be forgiven) but they drop it on the ground!

Now, listen, I know a lot of people are going to get all "why are you so mad about this, Rachel? It's just a flag". No, just stop, it's not "just a flag", it's OUR flag. This flag is a symbol of this country and I don't care who calls me a jingoist (which I'm not because I happen to exercise my right to dissent) or a Nationalist (fine, I'm a Nationalist, I believe in this country and I believe it can be this best country on the planet), but this is a big deal. It used to be that the single most disrespectful thing anyone could do was to throw our flag on the ground, and as far as I'm concerned, it still is.

What's worse, however, is people who are American citizens, who I assume revere what our country stands for, carelessly dropping the flag on the ground. I was in Girl Scouts and we were taught how to treat the flag -- and THIS IS NOT how you treat our flag.

The biggest thing though is that when I disagree with the invasion of Iraq, I was told to "move to Canada" (and I still haven't gotten an apology, despite the fact that I was RIGHT); whenever any of us on the so-called left disagree with jingoistic Repubicans, our patriotism is impugned with the most vicious and hateful rhetoric -- and yet, I will bet my rice that none of them is upset about this.

This is our flag, people. This is the symbol of our country and everything that's supposed to be right with it. You call me a traitor or whatever for refusing to say the Pledge of Allegiance (which was mindlessly recited daily when I was in high school, I refused to say it because my Allegiance is to the Constitution, the substance, not the symbol), yet no one cares that people working for the McCain campaign don't even give enough of a fuck about the symbol of the country to have a couple people hold it while it's being taken off a crane. Nice.

Symbolism is important. Disrespecting the symbol of a country is analogous to disrespecting the country. Not giving a fuck about the symbol of the country is equally analogous to not giving a fuck about the country.

So much for "Country First", eh Johnny?