As I watched American athletes win gold in both the men’s and women’s 4×400 meter relay races the other night, and as I saw them celebrate by draping American flags over their shoulders and pose for group photos while holding them proudly aloft, I couldn’t help but wonder, “Where’s the outrage?”
After all, the Flag and patriotism have fallen into disfavor with the social media chatterers and the social justice scolds. Colleges are voting to ban its display, agitators are claiming that it is a symbol of oppression and may even be worse than the Confederate flag. Self-important bureaucrats are forcing its removal from fire trucks and public buildings. Stories of people wanting Flags removed because some might find them “offensive” crop up from time to time.
Anti-Flag attitudes seem overwhelmingly the province of the Left. Even the Democratic Party itself got into the game, apparently forgetting to or deliberately choosing not to have any flags at its national convention last month. Flags magically appeared after people took notice, of course, because there are still many Democrats who think America is a good place and the American Flag is a symbol to be proud of.
So, where are all the scolds when American athletes, embracing national pride after a victory, pose with Flags held high? Where are the scolds to tell us that the medal presentations should not include athletes’ national flags? Where are the scolds to castigate the networks for using flags or their colors to indicate which athletes are from which countries?
It turns out that a US Olympic Committee consultant advised Olympians to “tone down” their patriotism, lest it offend others. Apparently, it’s OK for “lesser” nations to be patriotic and take victory laps with their flags, but not for American champions to do so. Still, this bit of advice hasn’t filtered into the zeitgeist, and I don’t see the usual chatterers running down the American running teams for their patriotic pride. Were I a cynic, I might assume that those chatterers noticed that the athletes aren’t of a disfavored demographic, or that they don’t compete in a disfavored sport, and thus were a bit scared of picking on them. After all, bullies and scolds tend to pick easy targets over difficult ones.
What does this anti-Flag attitude say about the Left? By extension, what does it say about the leaders the Left picks? We know that our current President and First Lady aren’t exactly the biggest drum-thumpers and Flag-wavers out there, except when they’re boasting about what they’ve done. We know that patriotism was portrayed during the GWBush years as the province of ignorant right-wingers. We know that Dem leaders have often gotten defensive when their patriotism has been called into question, and while I’m on board with the Left in refusing to conflate love of country with embrace of militarism, the anti-America denunciations leveled at them didn’t arise out of a vacuum.
Now, though, it seems that Flag-patriotism is becoming OK… under the right circumstances. Apart from the lack of criticism (other than from those who think that athletes draping themselves with Flags is not patriotic and respectful enough) of Olympians embracing the Flag and its colors, there has been a U-turn in the Democratic Party (possibly prompted by their Flag-slight the first night of the DNC) and now the Clinton campaign seems to have discovered that Flag-waving is a Good Thing for a presidential candidate to do.
The problem is, though, that forced pride is false pride. If a candidate’s natural instincts are to think badly of displays of the flag or national pride, why would we believe that candidate when his or her campaign does an about-face after realizing that the lack of pride (or worse) doesn’t sit well with the voters? Say what you want about Donald Trump (and I have, repeatedly), there’s little doubt of his patriotism and that he holds America in high esteem. Can we say the same about Hillary Clinton?
Loading ...
Active Comment Threads
Most Commented Posts
Universal Background Checks – A Back Door to Universal Registration
COVID Mask Follies
When Everything Is Illegal…
An Anti-Vax Inflection Point?
“Not In My Name”
The Great Social Media Crackup
War Comes Through The Overton Window
The First Rule of Italian Driving
Most Active Commenters