Numerous readers have emailed me (and GWR posted about it in Wednesday’s open thread) the story about Senator Barack Obama’s refusal to wear the US flag pin, as a way of making a political statement about his disagreement with the Bush administration’s policies. Via ABC News:
An eagle-eyed reporter for the ABC affiliate in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, noticed something missing from Democratic presidential contender Sen. Barack Obama’s, D-Ill., lapels.
“You don’t have the American flag pin on. Is that a fashion statement?” the reporter asked, at the end of a brief interview with Obama on Wednesday. “Those have been on politicians since Sept. 12, 2001.”
[...]
Instead the Illinois senator answered the question at length, explaining that he no longer wears such a pin, at least in part, because of the Iraq War.
“You know, the truth is that right after 9/11, I had a pin,” Obama said. “Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we’re talking about the Iraq War, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security, I decided I won’t wear that pin on my chest.
“Instead,” he said, “I’m going to try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism.”
[...]
“I’m less concerned with what you’re wearing on your lapel than what’s in your heart,” Obama said Thursday while campaigning in Independence, Iowa.
“You show your patriotism by how you treat your fellow Americans, especially those who serve. And you show your patriotism by being true to your values and ideals. And that’s what we have to lead with, our values and ideals,” Obama said.
Not if those ideals include trending towards Socialism, which is exactly what the “top three” Dem candidates’ platforms do.
On the issue of the flag, this is not the first time I’ve heard about a liberal who refuses to either fly the flag or wear anything symbolizing the flag because they think it supposedly denotes approval of President Bush’s wartime policies. Frankly, I think the argument is a copout. My strong disagreements with President Clinton didn’t keep me from flying my flag. In fact, in the area I live in, flags have always flown high - no matter who was president. I’ll be damned if I let a president’s policies keep me from showing my support for my country. That flag symbolizes freedom, liberty, and strength and is not a symbol of the Republican or Democratic party. Jonah Goldberg is on the same wavelength:
I agree with Seth, Obama’s decision to scorn the flag is the single dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of him doing. Even if he thinks the flag pins are stupid, his response should be that he won’t let the right claim the flag, not to cede the flag to those he disagrees with.
The truth of the matter is that for the last 40 or so years, right around the time the “peace movement” started, liberals have been very reluctant to show anything that could be remotely construed as patriotism, because liberals believe that showing patriotism equates to projecting US power around the world, as Mark Steyn explained here in a 2006 article about John Kerry. Incidentally, that anti-”projection of power” opinion is a view also held by their pals in the MSM. Being the moral relativists that they are, Democrats would rather believe that the US was/is no better - and in some cases worse - than other countries.
Personally, it doesn’t matter to me whether or not a politician wears the flag pin, but it does matter to me when one makes the conscious decision not to. It’s a strong indicator to me that the person choosing to make that sort of statement is one whose priorites are really messed up, not to mention it’s a sign of weakness because, as I noted earlier, anyone who is truly proud of their country won’t stop flying the flag and/or won’t stop wearing/displaying symbols of their patriotism just because they disagree with the policies of the current president. Purposely not displaying the flag as a symbol of defiance is not entirely unsimilar to liberals who want to run away to Canada when a Republican president gets elected and re-elected.
Senator Obama and other Democrats probably couldn’t wait to stop wearing those flag pins shortly after 9-11. They don’t want to look like imperalists, you see, and they certainly don’t want to look like they are proud of their country. The debate over the Iraq war was just an excuse for Senator Obama and other self-loathing Democrats like him to get back to business as usual.
Meanwhile, as Obama continues to stumble, Hillary’s poll numbers keep going up.
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Lest we forget, that’s Barack Hussein Obama…
Comment by camojack @ 10/5/2007 - 3:33 am
Like most in the left, B. Hussein Obama sees himself as more a citizen of the world than confined to a petty nation-state. I wonder whose idea this came from, Jesse or Al. I expect to see Whoopi okay with it too.
Comment by Banjo @ 10/5/2007 - 8:19 am
Quite so. Wave on, Old Glory.
Comment by Leslie @ 10/5/2007 - 10:02 am
Just a general comment upon the Democrat Senate:
Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale, and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled or hanged.”
~ President Abraham Lincoln
Comment by PCD @ 10/5/2007 - 10:31 am
Oh, but PCD, they are “supporting the troops” remember?
Comment by NC Cop @ 10/5/2007 - 10:55 am
5, NC Cop, I know you are being sarcastic. Any lib that would say that, I’d drop the BS flag on them. Actually, I’d like to see Gilbert Brown belly flop on them.
Comment by PCD @ 10/5/2007 - 11:47 am
You know, I’m betting that I’m not the only one here who remembers in 1988, when Bush the Elder was running for president, the photo that the newsies ran showing him wrapped in a long, glorious American flag. While on the campaign stump, he had visited a factory that manufactured flags, hence the reason for that particular photo. I have long thought that photo (picked up and run by virtually ALL the wire services) helped Bush Sr. to seal the deal with the American people.
Quite a contrast between he and Obama, huh?
Comment by Tango @ 10/5/2007 - 5:41 pm
So let’s see…I fly a flag at home…I say the pledge of allegiance (I believe it should be said everyday in our public schools)….I stand with my hand over my heart when the national anthem is sung at sporting events…I even watch the movie “The Patriot” with Mel Gibson and I cry….but I don’t own a flag pin…..does that make me less of a patriot than you…Obama never said anything about flying the flag what he said was “I decided I won’t wear that pin on my chest,” ……..And you know days after 9/11 everyone was wearing flag t-shirts, dresses, hats and yes pins….did that show make those people more patriots…..and where are they now…
Comment by Bruce @ 10/5/2007 - 5:50 pm
BTW, ST, you are now “the professionally outraged” and “have engaged in the normal internet-based freak-out” (http://www.poliblogger.com/?p=12612)
Good thing he had the balls to link to you, eh?
Comment by William Teach @ 10/5/2007 - 9:50 pm
Some rather pointless rambling from Bruce:
No. I thought we made that clear. The issue here is Obama staging a Q&A to try to win some support from the people who truly do hate the flag.
By his statement, Obama is associating the flag with President Bush, not with America. Just another reason Senator Empty Suit has no businees being in the White House, except maybe as part of a tour group.
Comment by Great White Rat @ 10/5/2007 - 11:27 pm
That’s actually funny, coming from the leftists who spend so much time looking for new excuses to be outraged (e.g, Code Pink).
For some reason, they never consider the mobs of homicidal islamofascists who will destroy entire city blocks over cartoons to be “professionally outraged”.
The good news, I guess, is that the liberals have finally found a religion they don’t hate. The bad news is that it’s radical islam.
Comment by Great White Rat @ 10/5/2007 - 11:37 pm
Bruce, this is an issue because Obama made it one. And for the record, there’s no reason you couldn’t wear the pin and still be patriotic - or not wear it and still be patriotic.
But calling attention to not wearing it and then tortuously explaining that it makes you more patriotic than those who do wear it, because those people don’t meet his own personal definition of patriotic is infantile and stupid.
Comment by Steve Skubinna @ 10/6/2007 - 9:51 am
I just had to visit the ST site when I saw this in the MSM. I knew ST would give this pressing and important issue the attention it deserves!
Steve, Obama didn’t make this an issue, a (laperl pin weraing)reporter did! So this is your latest criteria for anyone seeking elected office? Who wears a friggin 99 cent made-in-China lapel pin? I suppose you’ll start scruitinzing the SIZE of the lapel pin next. No wonder the Republican party has imploded.
Comment by tom @ 10/6/2007 - 11:14 am
Oh, and lest I be branded unpatriotic…
Comment by tom @ 10/6/2007 - 11:15 am
Yet strangely enough, even some of the democrat candidates running for office had some comments on it. Any thoughts on that, Tom? Or do you just degrade conservatives for their opinion on the subject? Hmmmm?
Nobody here will brand you unpatriotic for that….just a hypocrite.
Comment by NC Cop @ 10/6/2007 - 5:20 pm
Hypocrisy is saying you support the troops (by way of displaying shiny flag pin), but screwing em over when they return home.
Comment by tom @ 10/7/2007 - 4:22 pm
Fortunately, tom, that type of thing can easily be corrected. Unfortunately for Democrats, nothing can “correct” or “change” their 40 year history of spitting on the troops, whether it be literally or figuratively.
Comment by Sister Toldjah @ 10/7/2007 - 5:40 pm
Yes, tom, because never in the history on the U.S. has there ever been a screw up with Washington red tape. It only started with President Bush, excellent point.
It doesn’t reflect as bad as say 1 out of 5 democrats saying the world would be better off if we lost in Iraq. Now THAT’S supporting the troops, eh tom?
Comment by NC Cop @ 10/7/2007 - 6:46 pm
Ok where is the punch line?
How a Deomcrat can use Patriotism and National Securtiy in the same sentence and in the same breath without busrting out laughing and say, “I’m sorry, even I don’t believe that!”, I have no idea.
Every time we want border security, where do the democrats stand? National Defenses? Honoring our troops? Supporting our troops?
C’mon Obama……
Your a democrat right Obama?
I will have to research your conduct throughout the war, but if your like the other democrats, partiotism and support of the troops have been nothing but abysmal.
Why the sudden push to try and say you are so patriotic also?
Count how many times he keeps saying Patiotism in the article.
Comment by sanity @ 10/8/2007 - 3:53 am