It's Time to Take Back the Flag
In 2017, I drove down to DC to join the Women’s March. I made a sign. The sign read, “Fascism Comes Wrapped in a Flag.” It’s a paraphrase of a well-known quote of unknown origin, often misattributed to Sinclair Lewis: “When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”
I’m not the first person to note the prescience of this statement in our modern day. Nationalism always makes for convenient rhetorical underpinning to authoritarian policy, and America is no exception. We have seen our flag-waving, bible-thumping brethren literally attempt to tear down the democratic institutions of our country. In the lead-up to January 6th, rioters wrote that Trump had “called all patriots” to the capitol.
But there is another interesting phenomenon associated with at least the most famous fascist overthrow of democracy: the elevation of alternative national iconography. The modern flag of Germany was first adopted in 1919, but the old imperial flag of Germany was briefly reinstated even before the adoption of the Nazi flag. And today, that most beloved symbol of America, the flag, is being abused by the “patriots” who have for so long claimed it.
One has only to look in Samuel Alito's front yard, for example, or at his beach house. In support of Donald Trump, an upside-down American flag and an “Appeal to Heaven” flag were raised. They were flown, we are expected to believe, by Alito’s renegade wife—but that they were flown in support of Trump is not really disputed.
And then there is the thin blue line. A variation of the American flag casts it in black and white (appropriate) with a single blue stripe dividing the stars from the lower half of the flag. Ostensibly a show of support for policing, Ezekiel Kweku wrote earlier this year that “the blue line divides America against itself,” and indeed this would all seem to reinforce the much-touted notion that there are two Americas: the one living in reality and the one living in MAGA-nation. The thin blue line is a political statement that exalts police above all others... a ruling class above the law.
Of course, Trump hopes to brand the unadulterated flag for himself. On social media he literally covers himself in red, white, and blue in his profile picture. Vanessa Friedman has thoroughly analyzed the many ways he seeks to appropriate the American flag, from the decoration of his stages to the way he dresses.
There is a tension here: the tension between traditional "America-first" conservatism, and a hyper-nationalism that has gone so far as to require a new semiotic language to separate the true believers from the RINOs and other lesser patriots. Just as the Hindutva in India wave their saffron banners and the AFD fly flags of resistance and imperial nostalgia side by side, the MAGA movement cannot help but advertise their vision of an alternative national identity. This evolution is inevitable and its leakage into the mainstream consciousness through even Supreme Court justices signals its metastasis. Trumpist flags desecrate American symbolism, just as their politics fly in the face of American principle.
The cynics among you might argue that Trumpism is the logical outcome of American principle. You might say that the progressive values espoused by our leaders are more mythology than ideology. But when I say "American principle," I mean liberty and justice for all—for all—not just those born into privilege. Whether or not you credit our founders with any success in this striving, whatever iniquities you have identified in our history, words matter if we make them matter. I argue that freedom matters. Democracy matters.
Trumpism is anti-democratic. It is anti-immigrant. It is anti-American. I won't waste time re-litigating these points in this essay. But things have changed since 2017. The Supreme Court is packed with religious zealots, and the RNC is literally controlled by Trump's family members. Now more than ever, the Republican Party has been captured by Trump, and his allies will sacrifice America for him.
Justice Samuel Alito is correct about one thing: there is no reconciliation to be had between diametrically opposed ideologies. American conservatism has taken a position against American principles, and we should leverage that message to take back territory in the fight for our country's future. Trump-voters are Americans, in every legal and literal sense, but they are also anti-American in every historical, and yes, every legal sense. Monday's Supreme Court ruling on immunity makes it crystal clear: in practical terms, modern American "conservatives" are indistinguishable from monarchists.
There is an opportunity here; perhaps even an imperative: we must be patriots, who brook no false idols.
In the act of critiquing American policy, leftists have for many years ceded America by association. In certain (particularly online) spaces, some signal their hatred of the United States as a virtue. The progressive coalition at large has slid too much into a mindset of American-mediocrism. This country has not always lived up to its ideals, perhaps not ever, and perhaps it never will. But it is American to pursue those ideals, by all legal and necessary means. It is not enough to be anti-nationalist; we need a new, patriotic counter-nationalism to guide the way.
I know many on the left are disgusted by Biden’s policy on Israel-Palestine, and there are many reactionary domestic policies our current administration has taken up. I know also that liberalism broadly—that is the movement of human society towards greater freedom, lives well lived, and more equitable conditions for all—has worked as advertised, albeit slowly and asymmetrically.
Yeah, yeah. “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” That old chestnut.
But there’s another logical expression for the lesser of two evils, and that’s the greater good. It is not foolish to work earnestly toward the greater good. It is not naive to push our existing institutions to improve.
It is not hypocrisy to steer a ship.
In years past, Flag Day has been an easily overlooked federal holiday. This year, it hit different, with some even labeling the right-wing's flag-waving as "traitorous." Between Flag Day and the Fourth of July, the Supreme Court advanced their theory of a "unitary executive" by destroying the administrative state's autonomy and establishing broad presidential immunity with no basis in any Constitutional theory. But our newspapers would rather fixate on Biden's poor debate performance than the judicial coronation of a convicted felon and accused child-rapist.
Perfect moral clarity is a rare gift. We who envision a better world—one where we tackle climate change, spread prosperity, and curb violence—must not succumb to despair or ambivalence. If we rally together behind the nation we dream of, Democrats and Progressives can shape an America worthy of Old Glory made new.
NO KINGS IN AMERICA. Happy Fourth of July.
