Some people, mostly Republicans, are adamant about passing an
anti-flag burning amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Maybe they
want people to burn flags. It would be a very useful political
tool.
Some people, mostly Republicans, are adamant about passing an anti-flag burning amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Maybe they want people to burn flags. It would be a very useful political tool.
The first result of passing an amendment allowing Congress to ban flag burning would be a rash of flag burnings, something almost unheard of in recent history.
Had the amendment passed last week, it is possible three quarters of the states would have ratified it by the November election. And that would have given the Republicans not only post hoc justification for the amendment itself, but also another way to distract Americans from the disastrous war in Iraq.
And this, on this Fourth of July weekend, is a perfect illustration of the difference between real and false patriotism.
False patriots would rather play on your emotions – or beat up their political enemies – with empty slogans and false choices. (The 2004 version: You can vote for George Bush, or leave America vulnerable to al Qaeda. Your choice.) They would rather exploit love of country for political advantage than appeal to love of country for the greater good.
That’s because the greater good involves sacrifice, which real patriots are willing to make. False patriots hide behind patriotism to avoid it. False patriots believe their children have no obligation to risk their lives for the war in Iraq they support. They believe it is un-American to tax the wealthy to pay for their fair share of a war from which they profit.
The war has created huge fiscal and diplomatic problems, which real patriots try to solve. False patriots call this hating America.
False patriots blame the press for exposing questionable tactics by the government in the war on terror. And yet when the president says he doesn’t have to obey some 750 laws he, as commander in chief, has taken an oath to uphold, false patriots are silent.
False patriots believe the law is malleable, and that as long as patriotism is the excuse, the law can be ignored. They are willing to exploit the Constitution itself for temporary political gain. Real patriots revere the Constitution, and believe no person is above the law.
False patriots don’t understand that an anti-flag burning amendment is a sign of weakness. Real patriots believe that without a sense of shared social responsibility and working for common good, social
strength is impossible.
Real patriots, those who truly love their country, want to preserve the best of it and improve what can be. Real patriots don’t exploit people’s honest convictions, religious or otherwise, to divide people.
Real patriots are uniters. False patriots are dividers.
False patriotism is infected by partisanship and cynicism. When Hillary Clinton says she supports a law but not an amendment to ban flag burning, she is setting up a false choice. Since the purpose of an amendment would enable such a law, she is being both partisan and cynical. That makes her, in Samuel Johnson’s words, a scoundrel.
Another false patriot in this debate is California’s Dianne Feinstein, who tugs at the heartstrings with images of the flag being raise on Iwo Jima in World War II.
“Its symbolism of everything courageous about my country,” she said of Joe Rosenthal’s famous photo, “was etched into my mind for all time.”
But Feinstein misses entirely the meaning of the sacrifice of those soldiers on Mt. Suribachi: Real patriots are courageous. The Senate flag-burning vote resulted in displays of conscience that we should celebrate this July Fourth as the highest proof of patriotism.
Witness Senator Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, slated to be the next Senate majority leader, who defied the overwhelming majority of his caucus and voted against the amendment. Voting for it
would have been easy, and cost him nothing politically.
The same is true of Bill Bennett, a Republican from Utah. Bennett’s senior colleague from Utah, Orrin Hatch, was the principal sponsor of the amendment. Bennett is probably in no political danger in that conservative state, but a yes vote would still have been much easier.
Since the amendment failed by a single vote, the display of political courage by these two senators is as good a testament as any to the meaning of July Fourth.
Because that’s how real patriots act.
