Why do protestants make fun of Catholics? As I glanced at a headline today on how Democrats should reclaim the American flag. That flag and what it stands for is no different than my praying to a cross that shows the body of Christ, or a statue of the Virgin Mary.
This year I won’t be taking down my flags, and I hope I’m not alone. Because the flag should be embraced and displayed more proudly than ever by liberal-leaning Americans who have generally conceded this core American symbol as something central to the right-wing conservative brand.
Long before the Trump administration began its campaign of deportations, DEI attacks and direct assaults on women’s rights, LGBTQ progress and anything that smacked of pluralism, well-funded conservative groups, through signaling and symbolism, established an exclusionary notion of who constituted a “real” American.
The American flag is a key part of that. The performative flag pins on suit lapels. The over-the-top phalanx of flags at rallies and political events, the T-shirts and bumper stickers, the whoosh of an unfurled flag rippling behind commentators supporting conservative causes. The underlying message is that anyone opposed to the conservative cause wasn’t truly, fully, authentically or acceptably American.
Those same people who claim that many of us are not real Americans if we don’t embrace the flag the way they do make us un-American.
If one looks at veterans, the younger ones, one would find the following. However, old veterans tend to vote Republican by about a 60 R to 40 D percent margin.
Post-9/11 Veterans (surveyed by IAVA): This specific demographic showed a more even split, with Trump having a slight edge at 51% to Harris’s 49% (within the margin of error). When considering third-party options, the support shifted to 43% for Harris, 42% for Trump, and 15% for others. It’s worth noting that the IAVA survey also identified a gender gap among Post-9/11 veterans, with 61% of IAVA women supporting Harris.
I keep a statue of the Virgin Mary in my front yard; it keeps away the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses.
We don’t make fun of people for showing faith when they pledge allegiance to a piece of cloth, nor should we make fun of my belief in saints and the power of the mother of Jesus Christ.
I keep both the American and Texas flags up year-round. A few years ago, I built the flags to display in front of my house. I now wait to see if, before God calls me to him, America will ever accept me as American, rather than a hyphenated American—an eighth-generation American and Texan.
