Not since Cosmo Kramer refused to wear an AIDS ribbon has the issue of fastened garment ornamentation caused so much controversy.
Last week in Iowa, Democratic presidential candidate and junior Illinois Sen. Barack Obama was asked about the rather conspicuous absence on his lapel of an American flag pin, a decoration that has become ubiquitous on the suit jackets, blazers and blouses of politicians since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“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 I’m gonna try to tell the American people what I believe what will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism.”
There’s an element of truth in this sentiment, and I don’t doubt Obama’s patriotism just because he refuses to wear a lapel pin. It is certainly easier to pin an American flag on your lapel than to join the National Guard or volunteer at a senior citizen home. Long gone are the days when Americans grew victory gardens and actually had to sacrifice to support their country in a time of war.
Yet Obama’s decision not to wear the pin is utterly narcissistic, not to mention politically obtuse. Politically, not wearing the pin is downright stupid, as it only provides fodder for the right-wing smear machine. One can already see the Republican National Committee ads attacking “Barack Hussein Obama” for being “un-patriotic” and “un-American,” informing voters that he “hates the American flag and everything for which it stands.”
More importantly, however, even if Obama does believe that patriotism has been hijacked by the political right (which, to some degree, it has), that in no way obviates his ability — or dare I say his duty as a public official — to express his own patriotism. Obviously, wearing a lapel pin is not the only way to do this; in fact, it’s a rather small and symbolic way. But patriotism itself is largely symbolic as it entails communal participation in traditional rituals; though Obama says he’s “less concerned about what you’re wearing on your lapel than what’s in your heart,” public expressions of patriotism play a necessary role in conveying and sustaining the American creed.
Nor does wearing a lapel pin automatically associate Obama with those right-wingers whom he believes are cheapening patriotism. If this were the case, most of the Democrats in Congress would be false patriots. By disowning the American flag and casting aspersions on those who wear or fly it, Obama is throwing the patriotic baby out with the jingoistic bathwater.
The task for genuinely patriotic liberals who believe that patriotism has been crassly monopolized by the likes of Sean Hannity and other loudmouths on talk radio is not to shun any and all vestiges of the American flag. It is to reclaim patriotism.
“Speak out on issues that are of importance to our national security,” as Obama says. Send a letter to our soldiers in Iraq. Volunteer at a soup kitchen. All these good deeds are expressions of patriotism. None of them is mutually exclusive from showing devotion to Old Glory.
Examiner columnist James Kirchick is assistant to the editor in chief of the New Republic.
