Happy Flag Day? For The Left, the Flag Stands for 'Jingoism, Vengeance and War'

Photo of Tim Graham.

The Long Memory Brigade here at MRC remembered Flag Day with a few reminders we've published in our Notable Quotables newsletter. The Left can easily display their contempt for the American flag. For example, there's this dropping of unpatriotic nastiness from the days right after 9/11 in The Nation:

"My daughter, who goes to Stuyvesant High School only blocks from the World Trade Center, thinks we should fly an American flag out our window. Definitely not, I say: The flag stands for jingoism and vengeance and war. She tells me I’m wrong – the flag means standing together and honoring the dead and saying no to terrorism. In a way we’re both right....[The flag] has to bear a wide range of meanings, from simple, dignified sorrow to the violent anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bigotry that has already resulted in murder, vandalism and arson around the country and harassment on New York City streets and campuses." -- The Nation’s Katha Pollitt in a column in the October 8, 2001 edition.

We published another quote from The Nation (one of the year's best in 1991), which referenced the flag, but perhaps more the national anthem:

"Oh say, we've seen too much. The Star-Spangled Banner pushes like a cough through America's mouth and the twilight's last gleaming is just that, a sickly flash above our heads as we ride unsuspecting in the bellies of sleek trains, plop to our knees in churches, embracing truths that disgust us." -- Boston Globe arts critic and "poet" Patricia Smith in The Nation's "Patriotism" issue, July 15/22, 1991.

—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center.


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superman???

Where is Superman when you need him?

"...Truth, Justice, and the American Way..."

If conservatives are RIGHT, then liberals must be WRONG.

LionKing: Superman was loboto

LionKing: Superman was lobotomized, castrated, re-educated, feminized and became the leader of the senate.

In case no one noticed or hea

In case no one noticed or heard, and since you correctly quoted Superman's original motto LK, I felt it appropriate to note here that in the newest big-screen installment of Superman, the powers-that-be deleted all references, visual or other, to the american flag. The word I got was that as they wanted to market the movie in Europe as well as the US, showing or refering to the flaf would "offend" potential European moviegoers.

So I guess now it's "TRUTH (when it's convenient), JUSTICE (depending on interpretation, and the ________ WAY (insert preference).

The Closed Mind Erects Strong Barriers

When i go overseas i just lov

When i go overseas i just love to wear my american flag t-shirt...

Many have come up to me and thanked me for what I've done for them...

I tell them that I've never served in the Military but they still thank me anyway...

Sure you get the occasional asshole spouting off here and there...not very often...

I also have a union jack shirt for the UK - but none of the brits seem to like that one...too "nationalistic" ala the Nazi's...

THose who spout off can usual

THose who spout off can usually be set on their rears without much difficulty....

Particularly the frogs...

And people want to dispute th

And people want to dispute the fact that Leftists are America Haters???

Only a commie would use the word "jingoism"...  These Leftists are our enemies.

I love Jingo! I play it all t

I love Jingo! I play it all the time at parties, except, the more I drink, the more likely I am to knock the wood blocks down...

Isn't that the idea? (wood bl

Isn't that the idea? (wood blocks is code for demolibs, right?)

There is no sense in being stupid, if you can't prove it! - my dad V

Only when you add "behin

Only when you add "behind the wheel" to my original statement.... :p

"My daughter, who goes t

"My daughter, who goes to Stuyvesant High School only blocks from the World Trade Center, thinks we should fly an American flag out our window. Definitely not, I say: The flag stands for jingoism and vengeance and war. She tells me I’m wrong – the flag means standing together and honoring the dead and saying no to terrorism. In a way we’re both right...

Ummmm...the parent should learn from the wise daughter....after-all she is correct.

Btw...I see some of those in the media have changed their tunes....the two that haven't and didn't on the day you have the quotes from are Gumbel and Plante....at least they have remained consistence...no hypocrisy in their leftist bias that they have ever tried to hide....unlike some of the others I read.

Thanks Tim.

Ummmm...the parent should lea

Ummmm...the parent should learn from the wise daughter....after-all she is correct.

That is why I think most kids today are smarter then their folks, I know mine are. Who would talk about their country like this to their own kids? What a sad way of influencing your child.

BT... your "Btw...&quo

BT... your "Btw..." .....

"A powerful speech, powerfully delivered to
a nation now at war....No President since Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, has delivered anything
approaching a speech such as this and there may be those who observe
that no President in the history of our country has ever delivered a
speech such as this."
-- CBS’s Dan Rather following President Bush’s address to Congress, September 20.

"It was an excellent speech and a necessary one. We are a country on
the verge of war, hovering near a recession, in a capital that was
targeted for attack, and I think the President laid out very, very
clearly what’s ahead of us. I was quite taken by him saying that the
country is on a mission and found our moment. He clearly is a
Commander-in-Chief on a mission and knows this is his moment in
history."
-- NBC’s Tim Russert following the President’s speech on September 20.

And now these two -- and so many others who I am certain recognized in the days after 9/11 that we were indeed "at war" and that this attack was a declaration of war -- hold our "war mongering" white house and military in contempt. Now they hate the idea of war, because they can't stomach the loss of life of soldiers -- whose number has been, in the 6 years since, amazingly low relative to past wars.

In a way we’re both right..

In a way we’re both right....

This sentence seems to me to be a classic case of the Left's love of moral relativism; equating the flag as both a patriotic symbol of honor and freedom and also bigotry, hatred and vengeance is ridiculous. 

Yes, I understand that the US is hated by people around the world, but to have Americans validating this claim and putting it forth in our country is pretty sickening to me.

Dutch

Agreed. It's on the order of

Agreed. It's on the order of treasonous or treachery.

I know what you mean.  Even

I know what you mean.  Even if you disagree with the war in Iraq and feel it was completely anti-American, you can feel that way about the war but feel patriotic towards the flag and say the flag is symbolic of the ideals of America.  But to say that the flag now means such a horrific thing doesn't make sense to me.

Dutch

Just another example of how

Just another example of how irrational these people are. They are not to be reasoned with, they are to be defeated and minimalized.

Lefty's and OUR flag

I cannot think of a more despicable thing to teach one’s child. The lefty’s in the GREAT USA should bond together, build a spaceship, and fly to wherever they can implement their grandiose lefty garbage. However, their utopia would never last because they wouldn’t have any common sense folks around to complain about. Come to think of it, they certainly act like they’re from another planet.

My Futurama Calendar

So I have this really fun calendar from the creators of Futurama. Lets look at a few events they list this month.

"Father's Day" on the 17th, check.
"Gay Pride Day" on the 24th, check.
"Flag Day, Finland" on the 4th, check.
"World Juggling Day" on the 20th, check.

And on the 14th, nothing.

This is the United States. My

This is the United States. My flag is waving outside my American home. If the left would love to be able to fy the hammer & sickle, they can shove it up their backside and run to N. Korea.

The left would have to come u

Rbosque:

The left would have to come up with their own flag.

It would have 3 stars, one for each sex;

a picture of Hillary to represent government control of their lives;

a diaper to symbolize government taking care of them;

and a big tent, to symbolize where they will live since their government will take their property.

Our FLAG

I have a theory about the left. I developed this theory while watching the X-Files and Muldar’s paranoia with ET aliens taking over the world. My theory? The Lefty’s are the true ET aliens. They are attempting to indoctrinate the USA with their alien scheme of world domination. First, the US, then the world. I believe they started with the US because of the non-thinking, feely, touchy folks from the 60’s who were willing to follow anything anti-establishment and anti-American. The aliens saw their actions as a vulnerability in the make-up of the US and pounced with the placement of key aliens in schools, city, state and federal government and of course their coup d'état, the media. Of course, their goal is to attack everything that is right with the US and make it wrong. Impugning OUR flag as evil is one prong of their attack. Lest anyone disagree with my theory, just take a look at James Carville and tell me that we aren’t under alien attack.

Riley,I have to admit this ma

Riley,

I have to admit this makes far more sense than anything I've come up with. Be careful saying this out loud though, or you'll get podded...

The Closed Mind Erects Strong Barriers

 I really am beginning to de

 I really am beginning to despise those on the left who have no love for this country or our flag.  In defiance of our "neighborhood association" we are flying our flag today.  It's really funny, we live in what is supposed to be a conservative area now-Augusta, GA, and when we moved in and put up our flag we got a nasty gram from our friendly neighborhood association.  Luckily we are only renting and will be here a minimal amount of time.  Anyway, back to the leftist who want to make sure we celebrate Gay Pride Day but want us to ignore Flag Day & Father's Day-as Fonzi used to say "sit on it" but that might be too enjoyable-here's another one-Delta is ready when you are to fly to another country, perhaps you should go check out their website.  It's delta.com and happy travels to another place.

Me too--they can't write anyt

Me too--they can't write anything unless they include their false boogeyman of racism and hate.  It is the left that hates and I gladly return the sentiment to those who are more often than not merely a drag on our whole society.  Screw them.  They can't get past their own lies.

Liberalism is a convenient lie.

What the colors of the Flag m

What the colors of the Flag mean.

There is no sense in being stupid, if you can't prove it! - my dad V

What the flag means

Liberals are quite willing to fly the same flag after a 24 hour soaking in bleach.

Lysdexics Untie!