…remain the only countries which ban desecration of the flag. Isn’t that special.
Does anybody know when this rightwing election-year tradition got its start? I recall that George Bush senior latched onto this issue during his failing bid to remain president. Since then you can pretty much tell an impotrant election year by the groundhog-like reemergence of the flag amendment. The only odd thing is that it keeps getting closer to passing, this year falling short by one vote in the Senate.
You could go on for a while listing the real-world objections to this bizarre crusade. The United States Flag Code, section 176 paragraph (k), names the most suitable way for disposing of a flag:
The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.
The Boy Scouts regularly hold ceremonies for retiring flags. Anybody planning to throw a protest has a fairly obvious defense, just ‘retire’ an old flag. In the wake of this amendment courts would be obliged to weigh in on which set of people who performed the exact same act did it out of love for the country and should go free and who did it in protest and should go to prison. We call that sort of jurisprudence a thought crime and time was that rightwingers didn’t like it. Cuba, China and Iran find the idea just peachy.
You could ask why in the world we want to start writing exceptions to the First Amendment into the constitution. Bill Frist, mixing up objects with the principles they represent, argued, “Countless men and women have died defending that flag. It is but a small humble act for us to defend it.” Americans didn’t die for a piece of cloth, Bill, they died for the principles that you are trying to undercut. It makes a misguided patriot who thinks burning a flag to be more offensive than burning the principle of free political speech.
Steve Benen at Carpetbaggerhas kept the closest tabs on this issue and appropriately has the most salient wrap-up:
Political demagoguery is wrong, but half-hearted political demagoguery is just sad.
Apparently even the near-two thirds who supported this measure didn’t support it very enthusiastically. We can take some relief in knowing that our leaders aren’t all batshit crazy, just craven.
Speaking of craven, the GOP’s agenda has pretty much turned to all election all the time:
House Republicans intend to hold votes this summer and fall touching on abortion, guns, religion and other priority issues for social conservatives, part of an attempt to improve the party’s prospects in the midterm elections.
The “American Values Agenda” also includes a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage — which already has failed in the Senate — a prohibition on human cloning and possibly votes on several popular tax cuts.
How do yo know that it’s an election year? God, guns and gays, baby. To be fair the abortion stuff is pretty much a core Republican value and comes around election year or no.
How about the Democratic agenda? (also via Benen)
Democrats ratcheted up their election-year push for an increase in the federal minimum wage Tuesday by promising to block a congressional pay hike unless some of the lowest-paid hourly workers get their first raise in nearly a decade.
“Congress is going to have earn its raise by putting American workers first: A raise for workers before a raise for Congress,” said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
A minimum wage hike is right in every way that Frist’s hundred-dollar gas rebate was idiotic and wrong. Good for them.
Ancient Purple
Let’s see here.
We have:
Out of control deficit
War in Iraq
Government corruption
Global warming
$3.00 a gallon gas
Wages not keeping pace with inflation or Cost of Living
44 million Americans without health care coverage
So, the Congress will deal with:
Gun rights
Abortion
Gay Marriage
Cloning. (Manimals too???)
Flag burning
Remember, kids: This is brought to you by the Republicans as they control the White House and the Congress.
Doctor Gonzo
I’m pretty sure this started around 1990 when the Supreme Court ruled that the existing law against flag desecration was unconstitutional. Since then, literally millions of flags have been burned daily in this country.
…or maybe not. It’s so hard to keep track of these things!
zzyzx
Any Democrat who votes in favor of this amendment is an idiot. After all, if it passes, then the states will have a brand new stupid issue to obsess over. Just what we’ll need.
D. Mason
They have laws regarding the desecration of the flag already. Why doesn’t the president enforce the laws we already have? Oh yeah.
Pb
It’s sad that politicians can take a stupid hot-button issue that isn’t a threat that needs to be confronted at all and practically pass it as a Constitutional Amendment. Maybe we could have a Constitutional Amendment to ban ‘sexual deviancy’ of some sort or another? Because, you know, if you don’t vote for it, you must be a sexual deviant!
Whatever happened to those legendary Conservatives who wanted “less government” so it would “stay out of people’s lives”–has that always been a myth, or just for the past few decades or so?
Punchy
I’m still waiting for the Dems to pull out their only good shiv–stem cells–and begin to bludgeon some conservatives with it.
As for the flag voting…maybe, just maybe, the Dems KNEW they had 34 votes and just decided to limit the anti-Dem commercials accusing them of “hating America”.
Otto Man
Whatever happened with the constitutional amendment to ban steroid use in baseball?
fwiffo
As much as I am loathe to praise Hillary Clinton, her bill to tie congressional pay increases to the minimum wage increases is brilliant.
The Other Steve
It’s simply pathetic. The number of flags I see desecrated in this country daily just makes me want to vomit.
On the road to my parents house there’s a guy who hung a flag from his fence. Not only does he not shine a light on it at night, but it’s been hanging there for 5 years and now looks like a ratty old blanket. It’s faded and torn.
I see people every other day with one of those flags attached to their windows. Again, torn to shreds and they don’t care.
People who put flags out on their front porch, but don’t have the dignity to take them down at night.
I used to live next to a WWII vet who understood. Every morning he’d put out his flag, and every evening he would take it down.
I’d support this amendment if I knew it would mean jail time for those asshats. But we all know that’s not what this is about. It’s about a partisan election thing, and when these Republicans get home at night they use the US Flag for toilet paper.
The Other Steve
I still find it funny how many on the left hate Hillary simply because the right hates her.
Jim Allen
TOS, add to those examples the morons who decorate overpasses on major highways with multiple flags, and leave them there to the vagaries of the weather and traffic pollution.
Mine goes out for major (national) holidays, and comes in at night. As a side note, though, I did forget to take it in on Memorial Day, and left it out overnight (I have a mount over the mailbox, out near the curb). The next morning, I went out to get the paper and found a piece of paper tucked into the flag on the mailbox — it was a copy of the Flag Code, which someone sharper than me had left as a gentle reminder to me of my error.
Rusty Shackleford
What is it going to take to convince the folks in the middle of the political spectrum that the Right has jumped the tracks and is dragging the nation down a hill?
Cuba, China, Iran and (almost) the United States. How blind do you have to be to see that that there is something seriously wrong with this picture?
NCBrian
The curious thing, though, if the Republicans were really serious of passing this bill they could have. Three Republicans voted nay on the bill: Chaffee (RI) whose vote was predictable, Bennett(UT) and in the strangest one yet Mitch McConnell (KY) who as one of the top Republicans in the Senate should have followed the party line on this. Any explanation on why he did not vote for it? Do the Republicans actually want the bill to pass or just have it linger as a political club to be used every election year?
slickdpdx
Tim, I am in agreement with you on these issues (gay marriage, gun control measures, minimum wage raise and so on) but I think you are confusing issues Republicans are wrong about but are important to them and so natural election subjects not pandering (guns, god, gays) with blatantly vote pandering stunts (like the flag desecration business).
Mr Furious
Well, apparently we have 14 of ’em. One of whom is the otherwise kickass Minority Leader and another is my Senator (Stabenow)—you better believe I let her know how I felt about that.
Mr Furious
I’m with Punchy. I think they had it counted, and knew they were tight with 34. Still I’d like to have seen them blow this off as a caucus…
Tim F.
Neither of you mention the dingbats who hang flags from their car aerials. I frequently resist the impulse to wad up a copy of the Flag Code and stuff it in their tailpipe.
CaseyL
Why resist?
D. Mason
Which er…. tailpipe… do you mean?
Tom
Both sides have their hot button-change the Constitution issue. The right has its flag burning ammendment while the Left has their equal rights ammendment. Both are foolish.
Punchy
I’ve never seen this outside of a parade. I bet the drag alone loses ya 1-2 MPG…
neil
Ah, false symmetry, the fallback of the intellectually lazy around the world.
Rusty Shackleford
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Rights_Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment was foolish? That’s so 1972.
Steve
The last time I can remember the ERA as a major political issue was Mario Cuomo’s keynote address in 1984. It’s a valid point, of course, to note that it’s just as wrong to write equality into the Constitution as it is to write inequality into it.
demimondian
Umm…a shiv is a knife, specifically a stiletto. They are not very good tools for bludgeoning someone with.
Then again, now that you mention it, it’d be almost stereotypically Dem work to take out a shiv and start trying to bludgeon a conservative with it. No wonder we keep losing elections.
Krista
You guys have a Flag Code? Interesting. I wonder if we do. I have a little flag for my aerial, but it only comes out on Canada Day (this Saturday! And it’s calling for 25 Celsius and sunny — huzzah!). As long as an opposing sports team doesn’t hang our flag upside down, we’re pretty easygoing aboot the whole thing.
Andrew J. Lazarus
Nazi Germany had a law against flag-burning (at least, for their flag). I wonder which unpatriotic spawn of Satan canceled that magnificent statute in 1945?
SeesThroughIt
I, for one, am throoughly impressed with the ideas the “Party of Ideas” is bringing forth. They clearly know the pulse of the nation and are keenly focused on tackling the biggest problems we face head-on. If this isn’t proof that the US is the only nation Jebus pays attention to, nothing is.
Pb
The thing about the ERA is that–unlike this flag burning idiocy–I don’t think its enactment would substantially change the spirit of The Constitution at all. In fact, all it would really do is provide a bit more legal weight in cases regarding discrimination on the basis of sex–something that already has a fair amount of legal weight thanks to the 14th Amendment.
Incidentally, the ERA was already ratified by 35 states.
dagon
T.O.S
–i think that’s a bit simplistic. i for one have severe reservations about a clinton candidacy and certainly not because of any one on the ‘right’s’ opinion of her.
i don’t like her pandering or her politicking over issues that she SHOULD be frothing at the mouth over and i don’t like her being so closely aligned to the strategery of the dnc…..and, i’ve got a pretty good feeling that a hillary clinton nomination would doom the united states to 4 more years of republican rule.
(republicans aren’t inherently bad but they’re gonna need at least 12-20 years out of power to think on things a little bit).
so no, i’m not that ‘up’ on mrs. clinton but that’s only because i believe that the stakes are so high right now that we need someone with the credibility and, dare i say it, the sense of service to unequivocably state that this shit is broken and we need to radicalize the nation in order to fix it.
…a new New Deal! and i’m dead serious.
peace
VidaLoca
TOS —
what dagon said. I’m disgusted by the endless triangulation of HRC, Schumer, Biden and the rest of the DNC “leaders”, that’s why I dislike them. We’re in a mess, I don’t see any of them doing anything to lead us out. They don’t stand for anything, and they won’t fight for anyone.
As for “the right” — well, they’re a coalition. I think the business interests of “the right” would do just fine with HRC as President just as they did just fine with the Big Dog as Pres. The libertarians — not so well, she’s pretty much of a statist. The fundies — hard to call, a lot would depend on how hard she tried to cut off their money, they’d bark but not necessarily bite. The nativists — dunno, their big issue is immigration, don’t know where she is on that. Pro-DOD/pro-war/neoconservatives — exist in both parties, amoral pragmatists, she voted for the Iraq war, they’d probably find a way to play ball. See above under “business interests”.
What will torque the right up is the fact that if HRC were elected their slush and patronage would be cut off but that’s not different than any other Dem; in the end they either crawl back under think tanks or find new hosts to parasitize until the next go-round.
don’t know if I agree with this totally but I would say that if HRC gets nominated against someone like McCain — it would be a close race. Very troubling.
Steve
I don’t really see McCain as beatable by anyone, including Hillary, because the press seems to have canonized him. He’s the guy you may not agree with, but at least you know he’s an independent thinker, blah blah blah.
Whereas with Hillary, everyone just “knows” she’s a total calculating politician whose every move is based on polls rather than principle. She has no principles whatsoever – everyone just “knows” this. It’s hard to overcome the broad media narrative, whatever it happens to be.
SeesThroughIt
I somewhat believed this right up to the point where he went to Liberty University to give the commencement address. Anybody who kowtows to Jerry Falwell can fuck off and disappear from the face of the earth for all I care.
Pb
SeesThroughIt,
Thank you for knowing how to spell ‘kowtow’ correctly! I’ve seen two people today talk about ‘cowtowing’, which I’m sure is something completely different… :)
HyperIon
Ancient Purple wrote:
so YOU say. however, yesterday:
doesn’t that help you sleep better?
Krista
You’d definitely have to have some good strong rope and a ball hitch for that job…
Punchy
Isn’t the Flag Amendment just another way for Republicans to claim they’re “pro-environment” and “pro-clean air”??
Perry Como
Nah, like VidaLoca said, she’s a statist. Look at her stance on violent video games.
Richard 23
The Other Steve and well anyone really should enjoy this photoessay on Flag Patiotism. See how many instances of flag desecration and crass commercialism you can find!
Keith
Why not also add to the amendment that jackasses unfamiliar with the flag code aren’t allowed to cut one up to wear as a shirt. Tommy Franks, I’m looking at you.
Pb
So, did any Republicans vote against this amendment by mistake? Like, maybe because they misheard, and thought it was going to ban *fag* burning?
Thank you, I’ll be here all week…
Andrew
Hold on a second… if this flag burning ammendment will let us criminalize Jean Schmidt’s stupid flag shirt, I may have to reconsider.
Nutcutter
The fig leaf thing should be pointed down, right?
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I kid. I kid.
Sstarr
I’m blown away by the American Values agenda. If I understand correctly, our most sacred values are:
Anti killing fetus
Pro Death Penalty
Pro Packing Heat
Anti Cloning
Anti Flag Burning
Anti Taxing Inheritance
Anti Immigration
Anti Birth Control
Anti Gay
Am I missing any “Values?”
tbrosz
Actually, the “China, Iran, and Cuba” thing is false.
According to this source, the list of nations that have laws against desecrating flags includes, among others, Austria, Italy, India, Germany, and even France.
Oddly, some nations seem to have laws only against desecrating other nations’ flags.
BIRDZILLA
Politicians are the biggist enemies we have they care only for their carreirs rathaer then the nation and its citzens