Some Republican senators have once again used Flag Day as an opportunity to introduce a constitutional amendment that would ban the physical desecration of the American flag. It won’t pass, but even then, their political virtue signaling is misguided. We shouldn’t ban burning the American flag — we should mock the people who take part in it.
Look at the recent examples of people burning the American flag: Black Lives Matter protesters, antifa thugs, Iranian politicians chanting, “Death to America.” Public opinion for the most sympathetic of those groups, Black Lives Matter protesters, is lukewarm at best. They all proudly declare themselves to oppose everything the American flag represents: freedom, justice, the idea anyone from any corner of the world can come to the United States and become an American, the American dream. Most Americans, even those sympathetic to Black Lives Matter protesters, don’t want to associate with these groups or the burning of the flag.
It is a show of weakness. Does a group of protesters circled around a burning American flag, phones recording to show their act of brave defiance, look anything other than pathetic? Is a group of masked protesters raising their fists and repeating chants as if they are an amateur cheerleading squad while burning the flag embarrassing for anyone other than the protesters themselves?
Protests typically only resonate when there is actual risk involved. “Tank Man” defiantly standing in front of a line of Chinese tanks in Tiananmen Square. John Carlos and Tommie Smith raising their fists on the podium at the 1968 Olympics. Any of the protests during the civil rights movement when jail time, water hoses, dogs, and beatings were waiting for anyone who partook. A ban on burning the American flag would actually help make antifa losers look more legitimate.
Is American patriotism so fragile we must ban people from burning the flag (or force venues to play the national anthem, as some Republicans have pushed)? Of course not. The most powerful moments of patriotism come from those who choose it, as Chicago Cubs player Rick Monday did when he prevented the American flag from being burned in 1976. It means more when fans who are finally back in the arena after the pandemic sing the national anthem together, knowing they chose to.
We know the ban on flag burning won’t pass anyway, but we don’t need to worry about people who have taken up protesting as a hobby. Let them broadcast how much they hate the U.S. They’re laughingstocks. And we should be able to point and laugh at them and the movements with which their faux-bravery is associated.
