People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw lapel pins

October 6, 2007

It would be my sincere preference that our political discourse not delve into who does and does not wear American-flag pins, with every presidential candidate’s lapel suddenly drawing sharp scrutiny.

That said, if we are going to go in this direction, we might as well highlight hypocrisy when we see it.

Discussing an interview in which Sen. Barack Obama said he had stopped wearing a flag pin on his lapel during the lead-up to the Iraq war, Sean Hannity said on his radio show: “[W]hy do we wear pins? Because our country was under attack.” He continued: “And to politicize once again the war to this extent. Well, who cares about the war? Are you proud of your country?” Yet while criticizing Obama for not wearing a flag pin, Hannity himself has not worn an American flag lapel pin on a number of recent occasions.

People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw lapel pins.

Let’s us liberals play ‘gotcha’ and runaround finding as many pictures of Republicans without lapel pins on the Internet as we can.

  • Neo-con/rethug trick: always accuse the other side of whatever you yourselves are guilty of.

    Proven to be correct, again.

    Glass houses, indeed, Mr. CB.

  • A) Obama’s mistake was arguing that he didn’t need to wear a flag pin. Hannity knows that flag pins are vital to the war effort, which is why…

    B) Hannity always has a flag pin on him, even when you can’t see it. Hannity is such a patriot, he has the American flag pinned under his lapel — to his left nipple!

  • I have expressed similar thoughts before on this blog, but this subject makes me so damn mad that I’m going to repeat myself.

    Richard Nixon left a valuable legacy to the Republican Party (besides bringing in white Southerners with a racist bent). Nixon made his American Flag lapel pin the symbol of the Republican party, the party of good, God-fearing, commie-hating, Vietnam-war-supporting Americans, in opposition to the dirty hippie weirdo left-wing Jane-Fonda-loving peacenik trash who opposed him. That meme is still with us today, and it’s the reason for these attacks on Obama.

    I don’t fly a flag or wear a lapel pin. I love my country just as much as Sean Hannity (probably a lot more), but I couldn’t stand for people to think that I was a hypocritical jingoistic a**hole like most of the politicians and Sean Hannity types who wear those damn pins.

    I want to buy and American Flag lapel pin that says “I vote Democratic” under the flag. Or “End the war,” or “Impeach Bush.” Who will sell me one? The Republican Party has stolen my flag from me, and I want it back.

    I hope that Obama navigates through this latest storm successfully. The Hannitys, O’Reillys, and Limbaughs of the world are very skilled at using non-issues like this for their own evil purposes.

  • I didn’t do the research and forget where I saw it last night, but one blogger had the patience to go through Hannity’s whole website and couldn’t find one picture of him where he was wearing a flag lapel pin. The man is a clown.

  • On the defensive once again, and for what? Some stupidity about lapel pins, because some media twit can’t stay focused on the real issues.

    Obama’s answer should have been,”Are you kidding me? You’re asking me a fashion statement question? Where’s your pin, buddy? Oops – you’re not wearing one, are you? Can we talk about my after-shave next, and then move on to my underwear choices, because I know the American people will be able to make a much more informed decision about who their next president will be as a result. Here’s the answer: no, it’s not a fashion statement. It’s me wanting the people to look beyond the superficial, beyond pins and ribbons and bumper stickers, and ask themselves whether it’s the decorations that determine whether we continue an occupation that is failing and is taking needless life and draining billions from our treasury, if it’s ribbons that will make the difference betwen whether poor children have health care or seniors have to depend on the kindness of strangers for their meals, if a lapel pin will protect people from contaminated food or water, or negate the effects of drugs that have not been adequately tested, or keep them safe traveling over bridges and roads that are falling apart. I’m out here, doing the most patriotic and American thing I can do, and that’s to fight for what I believe will restore this country after years of a Bush administration that has ignored the will of the people, squandered the good will of the free world, and eroded our place as the standard-bearer of freedom and democracy. Next question.”

  • As stupid as the huff about flag lapel pins may be, I’m all for anything that chips away at the countless Republican-constructed memes that have become part of our culture but are in fact utterly false. Pro-life, family values, fiscal and personal responsibility, and on and on. Until all these “truths” are exposed for the lies they are, rational public discourse is impossible. Which, of course, Republicans must avoid at all costs because their ideology can’t stand up to rational discourse. Maybe I should dig up my old Heinz Pickle Pin. Seems more appropriate for the times.

  • This issue has aggravated me since Nixon!

    I refuse to let these troglodytes co-opt a symbol of my country, so I wear a flag pin with a prominent blue ribbon.

    Take that, you silly fashion police who have nothing substantial to talk about!

  • Hey, does Jonah Goldberg wear one of those lapel pins every time he goes out?

    If not–

    WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH THAT?

  • Richard Nixon is the one who made the flag-in-lapel argument. Even while he was declaring that was not a crook, he had the flag in his lapel. Even while he was announcing that anything is legal if the President does it, he had his flag in his lapel. It follows that if you depend on a flag in a lapel to establish your patriotism, your judgment is no more to be trusted than Richar Nixon’s was.

    • Comments are closed.