The Public Display of Patriotism Test

In conversations with Tom Holsinger, he and I hit on a test that smokes out American haters of all stripes as well as Americans who lack patriotism. It is really simple:

“How does a person react to a public display of American patriotism?”

I am not talking about people getting ticked off at the commercial speech of used car salesman wearing American flag lapel pins under a 150-foot flagpole with a mega-sized old glory flown 24-hours a day in all weather.

Nor the inappropriate patriotic displays like those of people who have tattered rags that were American flags on their cars, which should be disposed of per the flag lore in any Boy Scout handbook.

No I am talking about the revulsion against vulgar displays of defiant and simple minded patriotism found in Toby Keith’s song ''COURTESY OF THE RED, WHITE & BLUE (THE ANGRY AMERICAN)'' (See here, here, here, here, here and most especially this act of self-parody from the UK Guardian), or shmaltzy 1940’s patriotic themed movies, or more recent films like Mel Gibson’s WE WERE SOLDIERS, or President Bush’s “Top Gun” landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln.

You can smoke out who is what by how they react to public displays of patriotism (PDP). Those who feel “threatened” or “oppressed” by "simple minded and vulgar" displays of real American patriotism are America haters. People who feel that way are against the very concept of America and American liberty. Most activist Democrats are in this group and they have a positively "vampire-to-garlic reaction" concerning PDP's. They are also, in the main, Transnational Progressives.

There is also a class based “value cluster” associated with this America-hate that this statement by Dixie Chick lead singer Natalie Maines on Toby’s song makes clear:

"Don't get me started," Maines told the Los Angeles Daily News. "I hate it. It's ignorant, and it makes country music sound ignorant. It targets an entire culture - and not just the bad people who did bad things. You've got to have some tact. Anybody can write, 'We'll put a boot in your ass.' But a lot of people agree with it. The kinds of songs I prefer on the subject are like Bruce Springsteen's new songs."

(Two personal asides, first, will someone please wack Ms. Maines with a clue by four? We are out to destroy totalitarian cultures world wide because tyranny anywhere is a threat to Americans everywhere. Totalitarian tyranny's export terrorism to maintain domestic control. Only by expanding the boundaries of freedom with America be safe. Second, I didn't see any of Bruce's songs from that album as "patriotic." If you want a less vulgar but mega-patriotic tune, try Lee Greenwood's "Proud to be an American.")

Next, those who are made uniformly uncomfortable by other folks PDP aren’t patriotic. This unfortunately includes a significant fraction of Liberal Democrats, but not the majority.

Third are those who feel nothing and ignore PDPs save on suitable occasions, like July 4th, when a fair portion engage in PDP's themselves.

The last group is those who react positively to public displays of patriotism at any time. These people are flag waving patriots. And they are very, very, very negative in their reaction to anti-patriotism as well.

Blind partisanship also plays a role in informing people's patriotism of the above four groups.

There were a large number of anti-Military/anti-Patriotic Democrats that had "Inauguration Day Patriotic Conversions" when President Clinton was sworn in in 1992. Fly overs by military fighter jets were no longer symbols of "Reagan-Bush Republican Oppression" but were now tools of "Rightious Democrats."

There is also a faction of the Republican party that uses the American flag as a tribal totem not unlike the Irish using Orange and Green banners. These Republicans feel like they are eating a seven course meal of ashes when they see a Democratic President successfully using PDPs.

Of course, not all Democratic activists are anti-American. As I was writing this post, I sent it off a draft to my e-mail "list of usual suspects" and got this back from Bob Harmon, Head of the Marin County, CA ACLU:

I can tell you that as a Democratic Party official, and as an ACLU activist, I see no problem with displays of the flag. I wear enamel flag pins on my suit any time I'm at a convention, and no one has said boo. I have US flag pins, US flag/California flag pins, and one that combines the US and California flags with the official seal of the Governor of California.

(That last was a give-away at the last two conventions).

I've balked, however, at US flag neckties. Those, too, are sold in merchant's curio stalls at those conventions.

Make of that what you will.

I believe the post-9/11 impulse to wave the flag is a good one. It's better to hang out flags than people, if you get my drift.

However, the flag I display at annual meetings of my ACLU Chapter, which I chair, is a 3×5' "Don't Tread on Me." I told the crowd that the modern translation is "Kiss my Ashcroft."

I think the proof of the pudding in this theory will be the reaction to the Republican's September 2004 Presidential Convention in New York City. It is going to be crass, shmaltzy, politically vulgar and oh so in your face partisan-patriotic that the leftie America-haters are going to go insane.

I know I am going to get some popcorn to channel surf the cable news coverage of the convention just to see how much the newsies on the inside agree with the Anti-War protestors on the outside. The verbal confrontations between Republican activists and anti-war protestors outside the convention is going to be as much fun as a WWF pre-performance shouting match.

UPDATES:

· Stryker comments
· Donald Sensing comments

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