I find it hard to believe that this is even an issue in a national election in a country with so many real problems and issues to debate and resolve. But it seems the punditocracy is all a twitter over Barack Obama's decision not to wear an American flag lapel pin, which apparently signifies much more than a break from political sartorial conformity. If you believe them, it's a rejection of the flag, the principles it stands for, and everything that's good and American in the world. Apparently it means he no longer likes baseball, mom, and apple pie too.
This issue originally surfaced last fall when Sean Hannity went on a tirade about Obama's decision not to stick a little American flag on his lapel. Although it seemed to have been laid to rest, it resurfaced this week during the Democratic debate when Charlie Gibson threw up a video question from a Pennsylvania voter about Obama's reasons for not wearing a flag lapel pin, just adding to the unpleasantly confrontational character of the debate questions, which seem to have been picked to balance out the impression that Obama received excessively favorable treatment in the last couple of debates.
Now I've got to make a terrible admission. I don't wear an American flag pin in my lapel either. My reasoning isn't that different from Obama's. I think it trivializes the flag as a symbol and is a cheap and hollow display of superficial patriotism, which is a poor substitute for actually thinking about your beliefs. And you know what? I'm not going to wear a flag on my lapel at our state GOP convention and if I get picked as a delegate to the national convention I'm not going to wear one there either. I hope I won't be tarred and feathered for heresy.
I'm just sick and tired of the trivialization of issues like patriotism and love of country. These are deeply personal beliefs, and tying them to simplistic symbols lessens their meaning. This ties directly into the debate over burning the flag. The people who want everyone to wear a flag lapel pin are the same idiots who want to protect the flag from being burnt. In both cases they seem to be incapable of telling the difference between reality and symbolism, and if that's the level of their thinking I question whether they are qualified to play any kind of decision making role in politics.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Dan Miller
Dave,
Just a question, and I'm not much into conspiracy theory, but why is the Amazon link associated with your otherwise neat article to a U.S. Flag lapel pin? I don't for a moment suggest that it's a form of subliminal promotion. Perish the thought.
Just kidding, I guess.
The problem is that we, the people, focus on trivia to the exclusion of everything else. That's why we are so fascinated with what flavor tarts the current pop tarts had for breakfast, and which of them is pregnant by whom.
Fortunately, the country has survived this sort of nonsense for a long time and, Ruvy notwithstanding, has a decent chance of doing so in future.
By the way. Were you a Cub Scout or a Boy Scout and did you wear the hard earned (or at least earned) merit badges then?
Dan
2 - Pam Baker
I fail to see how a cheap metal ornament made in China is a show of American patriotism. I think Obama is more patriotic for refusing to wear the trinket!
Well done, Dave -- outstanding article and I agree with you wholly!
3 - jacksmith
MY FELLOW “BITTER”, STUPID, WORKING CLASS PEOPLE :-)
If you think like Barack Obama, that WORKING CLASS PEOPLE are just a bunch of “BITTER”!, STUPID, PEASANTS, Cash COWS!, and CANNON FODDER. :-(
You Might Be An Idiot! :-)
If you think Barack Obama with little or no experience would be better than Hillary Clinton with 35 years experience.
You Might Be An Idiot! :-)
If you think that Obama with no experience can fix an economy on the verge of collapse better than Hillary Clinton. Whose ;-) husband (Bill Clinton) led the greatest economic expansion, and prosperity in American history.
You Might Be An Idiot! :-)
If you think that Obama with no experience fighting for universal health care can get it for you better than Hillary Clinton. Who anticipated this current health care crisis back in 1993, and fought a pitched battle against overwhelming odds to get universal health care for all the American people.
You Might Be An Idiot! :-)
If you think that Obama with no experience can manage, and get us out of two wars better than Hillary Clinton. Whose ;-) husband (Bill Clinton) went to war only when he was convinced that he absolutely had to. Then completed the mission in record time against a nuclear power. AND DID NOT LOSE THE LIFE OF A SINGLE AMERICAN SOLDIER. NOT ONE!
You Might Be An Idiot! :-)
If you think that Obama with no experience saving the environment is better than Hillary Clinton. Whose ;-) husband (Bill Clinton) left office with the greatest amount of environmental cleanup, and protections in American history.
You Might Be An Idiot! :-)
If you think that Obama with little or no education experience is better than Hillary Clinton. Whose ;-) husband (Bill Clinton) made higher education affordable for every American. And created higher job demand and starting salary’s than they had ever been before or since.
You Might Be An Idiot! :-)
If you think that Obama with no experience will be better than Hillary Clinton who spent 8 years at the right hand of President Bill Clinton. Who is already on record as one of the greatest Presidents in American history.
You Might Be An Idiot! :-)
If you think that you can change the way Washington works with pretty speeches from Obama, rather than with the experience, and political expertise of two master politicians ON YOUR SIDE like Hillary and Bill Clinton..
You Might Be An Idiot! :-)
If you think all those Republicans voting for Obama in the Democratic primaries, and caucuses are doing so because they think he is a stronger Democratic candidate than Hillary Clinton. :-)
Best regards
jacksmith... Working Class :-)
p.s. You Might Be An Idiot! :-)
If you don't know that the huge amounts of money funding the Obama campaign to try and defeat Hillary Clinton is coming in from the insurance, and medical industry, that has been ripping you off, and killing you and your children. And denying you, and your loved ones the life saving medical care you needed. All just so they can make more huge immoral profits for them-selves off of your suffering...
You see, back in 1993 Hillary Clinton had the audacity, and nerve to try and get quality, affordable universal health care for everyone to prevent the suffering and needless deaths of hundreds of thousands of you each year. :-)
Approx. 100,000 of you die each year from medical accidents from a rush to profit by the insurance, and medical industry. Another 120,000 of you die each year from treatable illness that people in other developed countries don’t die from. And I could go on, and on...
4 - Dr Dreadful
Mr Smith:
If you don't think that anyone with half a brain cell can figure out in the less than a second it takes to Google a morsel of the above comment that you've posted this Jeff-Foxworthy-wannabe drivel verbatim on Democratic Underground and half the internet...
YOU MIGHT BE A SHILL.
One more of these from you, and it'll be goodbye.
{Assistant Comments Editor}
5 - Dave Nalle
Good try at setting the spammer/troll/shill on the right track. Dr. D. The problem is that the nature of the beast is such that he'll never visit us again.
And let me add that if you think there's a dime's worth of difference between Hillary and Obama - you might be an idiot!
Dave
6 - Matthew T. Sussman
Dave, it's taken over 400 articles for you to proudly wear the US flag pin on one of your columns. Why so long?
7 - REMF
"This issue originally surfaced last fall when Sean Hannity went on a tirade about Obama's decision not to stick a little American flag on his lapel."
Oh...you mean the same Sean Hannity who has evaded service during the Iraq War, while promoting sending others to risk their lives to fight a war he so bellicosely "supports"...?
8 - Pete Beathard
So, let me get this straight:
My dad was a war veteran that put his life on the line in Korea to protect his country. He refused to wear any phony lapel pin, or wrap himself in the flag every day of his life, or kiss a picture of George Washington and then bend down on one knee while saluting the painting.
Who's more patriotic? A man that put his life on the line for his country and trained others to do the same .....or.....some crackpipe idiot that's never seen a minute of combat but demands that everyone else wear a goddam, BS lapel pin?
Can someone with a brain please answer THIS question?!
You want to know why we are spending 2 or 3 trillion dollars in Iraq? Because the fools that care about the stupid lapel pin got us into this needless war.
They need to be sent to Iraq themselves!
9 - REMF
^ Amen, Pete!!
10 - Clavos
"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."
Samuel Johnson, 1775
True then. True now.
11 - Clavos
Chris/Doc,
This is the third time this guy has posted this crap; please, hit the delete button!!
12 - STM at the arse-hole end of the world
Good to see this debate is also happening on the other side of the big pond. I can't cop the 24/7 lapel-pin wearers either.
I wear a pin on Anzac Day (remembrance day), either a little Aussie flag or an Anzac lapel badge. Sadly, some people like to wear the flag badge all year round to mark therm out as "patriots" who care about "Australian values" - whatever they are these days.
In that regard, everything changes over time as more people from all over the world flood into this country - and change it for the better. You might as well ask, "how long's a piece of string".
Good idea to leave the pin in the draw the rest of the year. It does mark you out for other reasons than being genuinely proud of your country, especially in the current climate.
And those who've actually been to war and done this stuff never make a song and dance about it. It's been decades since the war medals have been taken out of the cupboards in our family.
My father in law, a genuine war hero, doesn't even know where his are, and doesn't care that much one way or the other.
I do have an Aussie flag beach towel, though, which gets a fair work out. No problem in irreverent Oz, but I dread to think what would happen to me if I had a Stars and Stripes one and was caught by a patriotic American drying my balls off after a surf.
13 - Dr Dreadful
Clavos @ #11:
Comment by 'jacksmith' deleted and IP banned. He was warned.
Thanks for the alert.
14 - Dr Dreadful
I don't have a Stars 'n' Stripes lapel pin either. There are two major and very good reasons for this:
1. I'm not American.
2. I rarely wear anything with lapels.
I do have a rather fetching Union Jack skin for my iPod, though. And, somewhere, a tie with both the US and UK flags on it.
In Britain, the age of ostentatious flag display is long past as an expression of patriotism. I remember hanging flags out of every window for Her Maj's Silver Jubilee in '77, and similar happenings for Charles and Di's wedding in '81, but since then things have changed an awful lot. National pride is no longer associated quite so closely with the royal family.
15 - STM at the arse-hole end of the world
What did Jacksmith do?
Obviously not jackshit.
16 - REMF
Is it true that Rush Limbaugh has a lapel pin of his medical deferment?
17 - Dr Dreadful
What did Jacksmith do?
Posted the same two comments all over the internet, repeatedly.
18 - mike mcdaniel
I really find it hard to believe that the lady on the ABC Debate is basing her vote for President on who wears a flag pin.
I wonder who she will vote for in that case?
Just for fun do a Yahoo Image search on John McCain or Hillary Clinton. See if you can find a photo of either with a flag pin on.
Seems that Nash McCabe has a real shortage of flag pin wearing candidates to vote for.
19 - bliffle
Neither the truculent Gibson nor the supercilious Stephanopolis were wearing flag pins either. One wonders at their patriotism.
20 - Pablo
Well it was bound to happen sooner or later. After reading numerous post by Dave, and maybe agreeing with about 5% of what he writes about, I finally found an article he wrote that I agree with wholeheartedly.
I cant stand the flag pins, it is the MOST fake display of love of country I have ever seen. There is also an underlying message of holier than thou that makes me sick. I already know what country I was born in and live in, and when these ninnies wear one as if they are more patriotic than the next guy its disgusting.
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, as has been said many times. They can take their stick pins and put it where the sun dont shine.
Just my two sense worth
21 - STM at the arse-hole end of the world
DD writes: "In Britain, the age of ostentatious flag display is long past as an expression of patriotism".
We only do it here when we're having a mass punch-up. You know the incident I'm talking about Doc.
Actually, I was ashamed that those people draped themselves in our flag and went hunting people they thought were "un-Australian".
In their idiocy, they grabbed a bloke of Greek background, who was born in Australia, thinking he was of middle-eastern descent.
He was as Australian as the rest of us, as are many people of mid-eastern background.
It was the flag wavers/wearers and drunken street brawlers of anglo-celtic background who were un-Australian that day. I hope they've learned their lesson. A couple were jailed.
My favourite image from that day was a burly police sergeant using his baton to belt off a gang of blokes who were trying to grab a couple of young lebanese boys he was protecting who'd simply gone to the beach for a swim and hadn't done anything wrong.
22 - Arch Conservative
C'mon people. It's not about a lapel pin. It's about the type of people that Obama asscoiates with and that make up his core supporters. Screw the lapel pin and think about this:
Obama's wife let the mask slip for a moment when she said that "this is the first time in my life I've ever been proud of this nation.
Obama caters to the whacked out leftists in San Fransisco and trashes small town American in a speech to them when he thinks no one will hear.
Obama's preacher and supposedly good friend is a racist whackjob and obama can't bring himself to publically admit it.
Mst of Obama's strong supporters are far far left types who obviously exhibit anti-American hostility.
Does a flag pin or lack of one alone tell us anything about a person's patriotism? No but when we examine the big picture we can see that Obama wreaks of the anti_americanism that characterizes the far left, of which he is a part of, in this nation. All one has to do is to look at Obama's voting record in Congree to see how far to the left he is. He does not represent mainstream AMerica and has to this point been given a pass by the media. He's arrogant, smug, and full of empty platitudes and promises. No substance. This "change we can believe in bullshit," might have worked in the Democrat primaries where every moonbat and his mother lapped it up but the general election will be another story. For the first time in this camapaign Obama gets a couple of tough questions instead of having his salad tossed yet again by the media and what's he do? He's been whining like a little bitch ever since. This is the guy we can believe to get the job done? Are you f-ing kidding? Obama's already beginnning to crack under pressue and Mccain and the gop haven't even started throwing punches. I for one look forward to the GOP taking this empty suit political hack apart peice by peice this fall.
23 - REMF
"Obama's preacher and supposedly good friend is a racist whackjob and obama can't bring himself to publically admit it."
- Archie/Bing
Jeremiah Wright's military record:
U.S. Marine Corps, 2nd Division, 1961-63
U.S. Navy, Corpsman, 1963-67
and Archie/Bing...?
(crickets chirping)
24 - Arch Conservative
What the fuck does that have to do with anything?
Obama didn't serve either [personal attack deleted].
You're just another memeber of the mronoic minions all hopped the stupidity of your fellow Obamabots amid the excitment of the Democratic primaries. You can't even read the writing on the wall. Obama and his sycophants are in for a very rude awakening this fall when they will be forced to deal with the reality that there are actually people in this nation that don't belong to move.org and that they actually vote.
But until then just repaet............
"change we can believe in"
"yes we can"
"hope"
"vision"
ahhh that's better..............
25 - Lee Richards
Arguing lack of qualifications is one thing; labeling, stereotyping, and tossing red herrings around--like a neo-Joe McCarthy--is contemptuous, and as "anti-American" as you can get.
If I recall correctly, the flag pin became popular during Vietnam, worn proudly by those we utterly could NOT trust:LBJ and Nixon.
S. Johnson (and Clavos) are right: "ain't I the most pariotic", and religiosity for show are refuges of scoundrels.