Recently, Fox News published a video of an RNC protestor attempting to set fire to an American flag until she was quickly pulled away by the police, likely due to the fire being a safety hazard. This video set off conservative commenters, many of whom threatened extreme violence, resorted to vulgar name-calling toward the woman, and flooded the video with comments like “If she hates the country she should get out!,” “Throw her in jail!” and “Stupid and ignorant!”
This kind of outrage is what I call shallow patriotism: people who love to wave the flag, but don’t exhaust themselves much beyond that, yet become filled with rage anytime someone else isn’t patriotic enough in their eyes.
Flag burning is a form of protected speech under the first amendment. Maybe we should watch that video and, instead of posting comments about bashing the woman’s face in, we should sit back and value that our country protects freedom of expression. After all, America is a system of laws, values, customs, and norms—not a design or a piece of material. In that sense, her legal right to burn the flag is more American than the flag itself. If we never saw another flag again, we would still be the United States of America.
Yet many people only love the parts of the Constitution that conform to their ideology. They demand that their second amendment remain completely unscathed, but when it comes to the first amendment, the Constitution doesn’t seem to matter anymore. This misunderstanding and degradation of our fundamental rights poses a far greater threat than burning a flag.
Examples of this shallow patriotism can be found in many places beyond a Facebook comment section. One time, as I was working on a political campaign, I saw a flamboyant woman wearing a shirt covered in the flag, sporting sunglasses with the flag on each lens. I went out of my way to ask her if she had considered voting for our candidate—since I figured she was excited about democracy—to which she quickly replied that she doesn’t vote. Likewise, on the Fourth of July we can see people putting their “patriotism” on full blast, but after the alcohol is gone, they go back to being proudly complacent about the well-being of our country.
That is truly disrespectful to the flag. It is an insult to the flag to believe it to be so shallow that we need not do more for the country than wear red, white, and blue. It is an insult to the flag to insinuate that a person exercising an American right is worthy of jail or death. If you want to be a patriot, contribute to the country. Reach out to the disenfranchised, educate people about our government, go to a town hall, write your representative, run for office, and, for God’s sake, at least take ten minutes out of your day to vote. If election day rolls around and you can’t even be bothered to help decide who runs the country, then please don’t call yourself a patriot.
Like many of you, I love this country. That’s why I care so deeply about our political system and the people affected by it. I’m not saying patriotism is bad; in fact, I’m saying quite the opposite. We need to be sure our patriotism is real and constructive, not just a facade put on during holidays or in response to occasional news clips. If you love the flag, then display it all you want, but be sure you’re living up to its meaning. As John Kennedy famously said “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Patriotism means being an active participant in exchange for the freedoms we receive.
At the end of the day, what makes America great is not fabric, and it’s not the stars or the stripes. What makes America great is that we grant our citizens the rights and freedoms that many countries throughout the world tragically deny. So next time you jump to defend the flag, make sure you're really defending American values.
