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TechnoratiLet 'em eat flags! This slap at voters otherwise concerned about their next mortgage payment comes, not from Marie Antoinette, but appears to be the message from the elitist managers at ABC News.
Moderator Charles Gibson admonished Sen. Barack Obama during the Democratic primary debate last week that should he insist on appearing in public sans flag pin it could be a "major vulnerability if you're a candidate in November."
Genuine "major vulnerabilities" have seldom been disposed of quite so easily. Politics, however, may have arrived at such a point where, alas, the flag pin is the last resort of the scoundrel.
"Look, I revere the American flag," Obama explained during the debate. "I would not be running for president if I did not revere the country."
Instead of wearing the flag pin, however, the senator said he preferred showing his patriotism by acts that help solve real political problems.
"What I've tried to do is to show my patriotism," he said, "by how I treat veterans when I'm working in the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee; by making sure that I'm speaking forcefully about how we need to bring this war in Iraq to a close because I think it is not serving our national security well; and it's not serving our military families and our troops well; talking about how we need to restore a sense of economic fairness to this country, because that's what this country has always been about ... distracts us from what should be my job when I'm commander-in-chief."
Co-host George Stephanopoulos chimed in, "If you get the nomination, you'll have to beat back these distractions." Already this key 21st debate, the last one scheduled before the Democrats name their nominee, was chest-deep in the trivia swamp.
The mud frogs of the candidates, which had been croaking over the past weeks, were forced to dance obscenely for the first 55 minutes by the ABC "newsmen," so-called.
George Stephanopoulos, of course, is not a journalist. Charles Gibson is, but he's not much of a moderator. This odd couple plowed deep furrows on what's left of the respectability of TV debates. Follow-up critiques centered not so much on the two candidates keying on the Pennsylvania primary, but on the moderators teetering on trivia.
Boy George may not be a bad person, but he flies under a false flag. Imprinted as a political operative, Stephanopoulos earned demerits as much for his trivia pursuit the other night as for his career conflicts. Having served as Senior Advisor on Policy and Strategy in the Clinton White House, he might have been moved by earnestness either to recuse himself from the debate or to explain his Clinton problem.
Instead, he carried the night-soil for the wife of his former boss, the 42nd U.S. President, who afforded Stephanopoulos the White House gig that launched him.
Were this not bad enough, Stephanopoulos took one of his key questions, the one about the former Weather Underground activist, as reportedly dictated to him by twisted, talk-show host Sean Hannity. Like so many high-profile conservatives, Hannity's patriotism is as shallow as the prick of a flag pin and just as misleading.
Vice President Dick Cheney, for example, likely has trunks full for such flag pins, all made in China.
Yet few Americans have achieved his dubious record of patriotism. As a young man, he begged for and received a record 5 military draft deferments from his patriotic obligation.
As a senior, Cheney first helped initiate the Iraq invasion; then his former company, Halliburton, proceeded to plunder billions in no-bid U.S. contracts.
Further, the loyal U.S. soldiers, who, unlike the draft-age Cheney, answered their country's call to arms in Iraq, have been woefully mistreated upon their return by the regime of President George W. Bush and Cheney.
Compulsive flag-pin wearing does not make a citizen a patriot.
Les Payne is a columnist for Newsday.
© 2008 Newsday
20 Comments so far
Show AllIt's not a job title. It's a single line in a job description, and applicable only when the nation is at war.
It only applies to the military, not to citizens.
Obama sez: "... distracts us from what should be my job when I'm commander-in-chief."
Well, crap. I'd been holding out some hope for this guy, since he hasn't spent all his time bombarding me with contempt like the other two of the "big three."
But, as I've written before, I will not be voting for anyone running for commander-in-chief.
It's not a job title. It's a single line in a job description, and applicable only when the nation is at war. Perhaps he or one of the other candidates can identify the "war," and point to the congressional declaration of same?
"Further, the loyal U.S. soldiers, who, unlike the draft-age Cheney, answered their country's call to arms in Iraq, have been woefully mistreated upon their return by the regime of President George W. Bush and Cheney."
They are potential terrorists when martial law kicks in. Have to diagnose them with mental illness, and give them drugs which will hurt them. Keep them poor, treat them poorly, take away their guns.
Our country sent them to War in WWI against Germany, when Germany was trying to negotiate peace with the British. It was a war fought for no apparently good reason except to killed 15 million people and make a bunch of bankers rich, and Wilson, despite running on an anti-war platform, declares war within months of being elected.
Did it again in WW II, by an act of war with Japan, cutting off their oil, and allowing them to bomb Pearl Harbour after removing our aircraft carriers. We also financed Stalin when he was killing off his own people, and helped arm Hitlers Germany, despite his policies against Jews.
Korea
Vietnam
Iraq
For what?
Ask yourself, who actually gets killed in these wars. Not the Cheneys and Bush's. It's the guy who believes the lies and joins up, or who is not rich enough to avoid being drafted, or keep themselves out of a war zone.
There is a war thats being fought right now, but most people don't even know they are in it. The war is against you and whatever your religion may be, by those who need to beat you down enough that they can give you away to the UN and One World Government, and a new religion worshipping man, perhaps your future leader. Not religous, but I do believe you should be free to practice your own, and while I am not opposed to globalization, I am opposed to the methods being used, and it has to be a Democratic Global Republic and not a Totalitarian Dictatorship, which is obviously whats intended.
'All good Nazi's wore the Swastika proudly.... those that didn't were suspect.
I bet Benedict Arnold wore HIS American flag front and center...most scoundrels and traitors do...right up until they reveal their true colours.
Pirates were known to proudly fly the American or British Falg...until they were beside another ship and ran up the Jolly Roger.
"You have to be trusted,
By the people that you lie to,
so that when they turn their backs on you,
You get the chance to plunge the knife in"
I bet all those Fascist flag pin wearers switch them for Canaddian Flag pins when travelling out of the country...LOL
My following comments have really nothing to do with the article but everything to do with democracy. I am watching history in my adopted country of Paraguay right now. An ex-bishop, who did amazing things for the poor, and his colation look to be ending 60 years of ruthless corruption and client state with an amazing display of democracy. They have survived everthing the Colorado party has thrown at them, such dirty tricks that would make Karl Rove blush and get down on his knees and ask for forgiveness. Nevertheless, they voted, and in droves, and it was peaceful and now there is a massive celebration! Not sure how the new government will do, but one thing I am taking from this is that PEOPLE have the POWER, they just have to use it and that is in their vote. We, a "developed" nation can learn so much from what has just happened to Paraguay.
The flag is a thing to be respected by us all - FLYING ON THE POLE OR IN OTHER FULL-SIZED PUBLIC DISPLAY IN ACCORDANCE WITH PROPER FLAG DISPLAY ETIQUETTE AND RULES. That's it period. We ought to salute it when appropriate and not ever, ever, ever wear it.
Individual civilians using the flag as a pin, or as a patch, or as a ballcap, etc.--as a personal fashion accessory to signify one's self as a conservative, or somehow more patriotic than others amounts to an attempted "crock" (using YOUR flag) and a personal slap to everyone who ever fought for the real flag.
I wish somebody would say so in this election.
You no more "need" a pin to "say something" than the Germans needed swastikas on their sleeves to "say something". That crap became required with the Nazis and look what they turned out to be. Never in America.
I say we need to SHAME the pin wearers until they cut it out--and shape the whole argument about how disrespectful it is to be wearing the flag like a brag.
Funny story:
Got an American Flag hanging from the railing of my balcony.
My neighbors think I'm "weird." A few have asked the management to force me to remove it - it makes them "nervous."
"What's with the flag?" a Police Officer who happened by the other day for a different reason felt the need to ask.
In Texas. Dallas. Just blocks from the soon-to-be-constructed Decider Library and Freedumb Institute.
On a side note, said PO also threatened to arrest me for not having "identification" while standing in my own parking lot. When I pointed out the irony of the situation, I was warned that my "attitude" was problematic...
I work as a police dispatcher and had an American Flag that I had to purchase. Only the small lapel pin type was authorized. My seatbelt would catch it and turn it over and I discovered after a day that no one noticed it. I kept it that way for maybe a month and finally someone said something to me. I played dump with "oh sorry I didnt notice" and turn it upright. I lost it and have not pursued getting another one. I dont display an American Flag on my car. The flag has been taken with patriotism for all the wrong reasons. Im an American By Birth. At one time I love displaying the American Flag and was a patriot as one should be. But today some consider me other things that I won't post here. Now you just saw me waste the forum space, just like Fox and other News "Entertainment Services" Waste our valuable radio/tv spectrum. Thank you.
this is for DEATHTOTYRANTS.................YOU HAVE A RIGHT NOT TO VOTE....SO DON'T VOTE....NOBODY CARES ...YOU BIG BABY
Thank God for this Web site , and the many talented true patriotic writers.
Compulsive flag-pin wearing does not make a citizen a patriot.
But these clever bumper stickers do:
" Support our Troops " ,
" God Bless America", " United We Stand "
and my all time favorite, " Freedom isn't Free "
Oh , dont forget to join a community watch group or the Civil Corps, we need more patriotic spys practising warrentless survielence.
Freedom isn't free, we need to fight to save our civil rights from this evil that has fallen over America.
Speak out, shout out, all opinions are important.
I've been writing letters, making phone calls - I want Ralph Nader, Cynthia McKinney and anyone else who is on enough ballots to receive 270 electoral college votes to be included in the debates in the fall. I'm convinced that they, so called "third party" candidates, would not tolerate the stupid questions from the mainstream media. The time to act on this is now - let's make noise! Inclusion, opening up the debates to other voices - I dont' care who it helps or who it hurts, blah blah blah - it's about democracy, the small cracks we still have now and then...
Obama complains about the media's treatment of him, but did Obama complain when the media brutalized Dennis Kucinich?
Eric J-D said: "To ubrew12: While McCain's proposed gas-tax cut won't stimulate the economy (which is how his campaign is promoting it), the idea of suspending what is effectively a federal sales tax on gas is a complex issue."
Thanks. Good post. I know the subject is complex. I still think that in our current Bush-gifted financial climate, tax cuts are irresponsible, even on regressive taxes. Its a measure of the publics ignorance about the many (and growing) costs of our national debt that ANY politician would still hope to curry favor with the public with such a proposal.
To ubrew12:
While McCain's proposed gas-tax cut won't stimulate the economy (which is how his campaign is promoting it), the idea of suspending what is effectively a federal sales tax on gas is a complex issue.
Sales taxes (like the 18.4 cent per gallon federal tax added to the price of each gallon of gasoline) are regressive in nature. They have a far more deleterious impact on lower-income people than on those with higher incomes. In other words, if both a lower-income and a higher-income person depend on purchasing gas to get to work, etc., the tax added to each gallon of gas has a more substantial negative impact on the former than on the latter (since the latter has a larger pool of income out of which (s)he draws to pay for gasoline).
So suspending the gas-tax---while not stimulating the economy---may offer lower-income people some measure of temporary economic relief. Admittedly this is likely to be very minor.
Against this you have the fact that the gas tax is used to support repair of highways, so loss of that would have to be balanced against whatever benefits might be derived for lower-income people from a temporary suspension of the tax.
Then of course there is the environmental issue. Environmentalists have traditionally championed raising taxes on gasoline. The idea is that if gas can be made prohibitively high it will serve as a disincentive to consumers to rely on it as a fuel source.
I'm all for reducing gasoline use/consumption, but environmentalists who favor raising gasoline taxes need to accept the regressive nature of their strategy: they hurt (economically) lower-income people in their pursuit of doing good to the environment. This has occasionally led to lower-class distrust of environmentalists, who they suspect of not showing sufficient concern for their situation in life.
My point is that the issue is complex and that raising or reducing taxes on consumables needs to be looked at with care.
Surely we can come up with something better than the "solution" being promoted by the McCain campaign, but we need to keep in mind both the impact on the environment and on lower-income Americans.
So, deathtotyrants refuses to vote for Obama and condemns those who support him while blaming them for dividing the Democrats.
Nice hypocrisy there. But then it's exactly what Obama supporters are doing too, and I bet they think they're just as morally superior to deathtotyrants as he seems to think he is to them.
I guess that makes most Democrats self-righteous hypocrites.
Heres a question they might want to ask McCain:
Mr McCain: Thanks to George Bush's tax cuts, we owe $10 trillion in public debt. Thanks to his encouragement of loose Fed policy, we owe another $10 trillion in household debt. With baby boomers about to retire, the SocSec network will impact us by another $20 trillion within the lifetime of people entering their earning years.
International finance no longer thinks the U.S. can pay its existing debt, which is why the dollar has fallen: financiers are trying to get out of Dodge. This crisis in confidence regarding our massive debt is why our finance industry has fallen and our housing industry has fallen. These threaten to overturn our economy, leading possibly to a outright Depression.
In response to these problems caused by tax cuts and the ensuing debt, YOU WANT TO CUT GAS TAXES???
With all due respect, sir, are you NUTS??? What must you think of the American people that you would even propose such a thing???
"Instead, he carried the night-soil for the wife of his former boss, the 42nd U.S. President, who afforded Stephanopoulos the White House gig that launched him."
Let's see, night soil is a euphemism for shit. So, the statement reads Stephanopoulos carried Hillary's shit. Let's get personal, since you did, payne. Eat shit, you turd. Turd, as in piece of shit. Obama is weak, and people like you try to enable him. The world has become full of people like you, MoveOn and Dean come to mind. Because of their mistakes, the Democratic party is now divided. Florida and Michigan have been lost to a Republican presidential nominee, and I sure as shit won't vote for any presidential nominee if Michigan and Florida aren't included as voting members of the nominating convention. This is what people like you have wrought, idiot. Go fuck yourself.
My email address is attached to my login. You want to discuss it, email me and I'll tell you what I really think of you, stupid.
The flag-pin "issue"---like the Jeremiah Wright "controversy," the Bill Ayers association "question," etc. (all in scare quotes to register their fictive status)---is just another example of a media-generated Baudrillardian hyperreal, something that defies the binary logic of imaginary/real.
These hyperreal events are so disorienting because it becomes difficult to know precisely how to attack them. While the media generate and produce/manufacture them as "issues"---claiming that they are important and legitimate questions---they also reiterate endlessly the mantra that these "issues" are on the minds of "real voters" and that the media, far from manufacturing them, are simply acting as conduits for the expression of views and concerns that originate elsewhere.
Certainly one could challenge all of this and say that in fact the media's notion of the "average American voter" concerned about and interested in these "issues" is just another media creation---a simulated group, with simulated issues, to whom it addresses its simulated serious discussion of simulated pertinent issues. And one could also argue that the media produces these "issues" in order to produce an interest in them among viewers that they wouldn't otherwise have.
But then you read a letter like that of David Rivkin in the NYT and you have to wonder, is David Rivkin just an example of a person who has been effectively transformed by the media into just such a "concerned average American voter?"--one who otherwise would not have cared at all about this "issue"--or is this a genuine concern of his, unshaped by any media influence?
That's one of the things I find so difficult today in our media-satured world, determining to what extent the concerns of my fellow Americans have been shaped by the media and to what extent they are expressions of unmediated interest.
If people feel they need to wear a flag pin on their lapel or a cross around their neck or a scarf on their head to truly demonstrate the belief in their heart then they deserve each other in their loony pursuits. That doesn't mean the rest of us deserve them but I guess that's life on the third rock. Talk is cheap and so are flag pins...
john mccain spent almost 6 years in a communist indoctrination program (pow)........