American Flags
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Last night as I watched coverage of the Bipartisan
Commission on terrorism chaired by Bob Kerrey, the war criminal ex-Senator who
currently runs the
Meanwhile, John Kerry cannot be spotted without the obligatory flag on his lapel. After September 11, liberal newsman Dan Rather began wearing an American flag pin in his lapel. So does sportscaster Werner Wolf.
The flag is ubiquitous in NYC storefront windows in my neighborhood. The Chinese restaurant, the CVS pharmacy, the Russian barber shop, where I get my buzzcuts, all have them.
People in my building wear them, either on their lapel or as
a pin on a pocketbook. There is an American flag on the doorman's desk as there
is at nearly all the security guard stations at
All of these flags are sported for one and one reason only--to tell the onlooker that they support the war against terrorism and that they support the president.
The use of the flag to intimidate dissent began with Richard Nixon who wore the pin himself, as did all of his top aides. Ever since then, there have been repeated attempts to use the flag as an ideological weapon.
On
There are numerous
parallels between the Bush and Nixon presidential campaigns, as well as Nixon
and Agnew's "law and order" assault on Democratic congressional
candidates in 1970.
Joe McGinniss, the author of "The Selling of the
President," an account of Nixon's media campaign in 1968, recalled that "the
flag was a consistent motif" in Nixon commercials that year. Bush's
carefully staged events, which protect him from reporters' questions, are also
similar to Republican activities in 1968, when Nixon's handlers shielded him
from the press, McGinniss said.
Republican candidates
proudly wore American flag lapel pins like war decorations that year.
After Agnew was
criticized for his approach, he worked a new line into his speeches. He said he
did not question anyone's "patriotism," only the "judgment of
the radical liberals."
Bush uses the same
language this year. When he assails Dukakis on the Pledge of Allegiance, Bush
adds, "I don't question his patriotism, I question his judgment.
So Kerry's campaign, in seeking to avoid Dukakis's mistake, is playing up both the flag and his patriotism, as demonstrated by his military record. Whatever value this has in electing Kerry is secondary to the effect it has in reinforcing the "patriotic" mood that has gripped the nation.
After September 11th, the insufferable Todd Gitlin put a positive spin on the proliferation of American flags:
The attack stirs, in
other words, patriotism – love of one’s people and desire to keep them from
being hurt anymore. And then, too, the wound is inverted, transformed into a
badge of honor. It is translated into protestation (“we didn’t deserve this”),
and pride (“they can’t do this to us”). Pride can go toward the quest for
justice, the rage for punishment, the pleasures of smugness. The dangers are
obvious. But it should not be hard to understand that the American flag
sprouted first, for many of us, as a badge of belonging, not a call to shed
innocent blood.
full: http://www.opendemocracy.net/debates/article-2-47-105.jsp
I would challenge this interpretation on two grounds. First,
we do not need a "badge of belonging". The iconography of the flag is
not meant to draw people together. It is to *exclude* people who are not
members of the homeland. The post-September 11th period has been marked by a
growing xenophobia directed against the French, the Germans and any nation that
refuses to toe the line on the