Questioning the patriotism of those who do wear flag-pins?

April 20, 2008

How stupid has the flag-pin nonsense become? Karl Rove told a national television audience that Barack Obama’s argument is that, “If you wear a flag lapel pin, you’re not a true patriot.” He did not appear to be kidding.

We’re clearly well past the point at which Rove can jump the shark, but for goodness sakes, this is embarrassing.

ROVE: What [Obama] was really doing was demonstrating this turn of mind that says, you know what? If you wear a flag lapel pin, you’re not a true patriot. And he’s questioned the patriotism of people who made a decision that they would honor their country by putting a flag lapel pin on…. The issue that I think is embedded in there is that he questioned the patriotism of people who did. He said true patriotism —

O’REILLY: I don’t know if he did that.

When O’Reilly is defending Obama against shameless hackery, you know Rove has gone over the edge.

Post Script: And maybe, if Fox News were willing to disclose Rove’s role as a McCain advisor, his dishonest on-air smearing might be slightly less unethical.

Mr. Rove, can I look at the back of your flag pin for a moment? Ah, yes… just as I thought- “Made in China.”

  • The devil lurks behind the cross. Translation: people with evil intent often wear a cross to give themselves the aura of religiosity. Correlary: Traitors wear Chinese-made flag pins.

    On a more serious note, though, this is one important reason to have long drawn out primaries and caucuses instead of a one day national primary after a short campaign season. With the shorter season you have more uninformed voters deciding the nominees, and you give people like Chris Matthews and Karl Rove the opportunity to tell you “all you need to know.”

  • If I was Obama, I would have made the statement that the day that these pins are made of American metal, by American workers, and NOT from cheap foreign slag and manufactured in China, will be day that I proudly wear one. Unfortunately, this cheap pin has become a symbolism of what has happened to American jobs.

  • The extra-rich hued, glossy paint finish on those “China” pins is usually a dead give-away (pardon the pun) that the paint finish contains lead. The deep shade of blue also denotes the possible presence of cobalt. Why would I ever want to wear a miniaturized toxic waste dump?

  • O’REILLY: — to put it on, or he doesn’t want to put it on. It ruffles his suit or whatever. I just didn’t take it any deeper than that. I could be wrong.

    ROVE: Yeah.

    O’REILLY: I could be wrong about everything.

    Oh, puleeze. THIS is a defense?

  • Great… something that I am sure shillary will pick up and run with, after all, she seems more intent on electing mcsame than supporting any meaningful change.

    We need to stop the bush-clinton-bush-clinton criminal cabal.

  • the whole flag pin thing became a test of people’s patriotism after 9/11. It’s ridiculous and so propagandistic and simple-minded. And none of the three presidential candidates currently running wears a flag pin. As far as I can remember, the only presidential candidate who did was Rudy Giuliani. And since he was impacted so strongly by 9/11 he had that right and privilege. Nothing wrong with wearing a flag pin, but nothing wrong with not wearing one either. Why is it an issue for Obama, but not the other candidates? I don’t get it.

  • Flag pins made in China?. How about the little American flags made in China, or all those yellow magnetic ribbons (seen, if you’ve noticed for some time now, less an less afixed to vehicles) also made in China? Who would have guessed that our measure of patriotism relied so heavily on China for its expression?

  • Haik Bedrosian (#1),

    I think you need your glasses checked. Even to my poor eye the writing on the back of Rove’s lapel flag pin clearly says “Gott mit uns”. The words below that are just too small me to read, but I think “Heimatland” is one of them.

  • Sorry, CB, but I think Rove’s spin on this could be seen coming a mile away. Obama’s own explanation for not wearing the flag pin:

    “My attitude is that I’m less concerned about what you’re wearing on your lapel than what’s in your heart,” he told the campaign crowd Thursday. “You show your patriotism by how you treat your fellow Americans, especially those who serve.
    You show your patriotism by being true to our values and ideals. That’s what we have to lead with is our values and our ideals.”
    “The truth is that right after 9/11 I had a pin,” Obama said. “Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we’re talking about the Iraq war, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security.”

    I do not disagree with Obama’s sentiments, but can anyone who knows how the conventional narrative automatically affirms the patriotism of the right while simultaneously doubting that of the left not have known that Obama’s remarks would be construed as Rove has done? Obama is correct that actions not symbols are more important when it comes to “true” patriotism. But the use of the qualifier “true” implies that there is a “false” patriotism in those who opt for the symbols. While this may be true for some, I do not believe it is a truth that will be well-received in by the general public. There are a lot more “support the troops” magnets running around our roadways than families with service members. There are a lot more people wearing or flying flags than calling / writing to their congress critters to effect a change in policy – or donating time or money to help veterans. I cannot be surprised or even outraged over Rove’s comments. He knows his audience. They are the same people who think Bitter deserves a “gate” suffix. IMO, Obama cannot ignore this dynamic in the contest in which he is engaged.

  • You wanna know what I think is unpatriotic?
    People who think they need a tax cut.
    After all, when we’re asked to send our children to die in a war, or spend trillions of dollars on worthless missile defense systems, we are constantly told that “Freedom Ain’t Free”, yet when it comes to those who are enjoying all the fruits this country has to offer, all of a sudden, the word sacrifice means nothing to them. Because of their need for greed and desire to put themselves before their country, we are now facing enormous deficits. That’s not patriotism. That’s selfishness.
    During WWII, people of all stripes banded together and made sacrifices for the war effort: gas rationing, meatless Tuesdays, victory gardens, and yet here we are being told we are facing an “Islamofascist” enemy ten times worse than Hitler, and we can’t get some people to give up their gas sucking SUVs, let alone want to pay a little extra to win this war effort with out breaking the country doing so.
    So now we have a cult of people in this country who feel that rather than make any sacrifices a true patriot might be more than happy to make; sending their children to fight, driving fuel efficient cars, happily paying taxes, they can show their patriotism by making the smallest effort possible- a pin on their lapels. A pin more often than not made in China, a communist country. That sounds like patriotism to me. Then we can chide those who choose not to wear one because they don’t love America enough. If these people loved America, they wouldn’t have outsourced our jobs, they wouldn’t have sent our troops to die in a war based on lies (again), and they wouldn’t bitch about the taxes they have to pay to keep America strong.

  • I suppose that we’ll start hearing next about why Obama doesn’t also wear a Christian cross pin — to prove he’s really not a Muslim and truly favors family values. There’s nothing like two pins to prove his worth as a jingoistic buffoon.

  • Given that a scummy slime like Rove deserves to be dangling from a rope for his treason, and given that every right wing “patriot” I’ve ever met who wore one of those pins was some draft-dodging coward (at best), I’d say yes, I do question the “patriotism” of those people, since their existence proves the truth of Samuel Johnson’s observation that “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”

  • The National Flag Code of 1923 passed by congress in 1942 prohibits the wearing of flag patches or lapel pins unless on a military uniform, uniform of a patriotic group, the uniform of policemen and firemen. So I guess all these bushies who have their panties in a twist over Obama not violating the National Flag Code of 1923 consider their non-elitist Armani suits as the uniform of some obscure patriotic organization

  • Damn it, Haik got it in one.

    And someone can explain to me how putting a magnet on the back of your SUV that says “Support the Troops” is supporting the troops. There are American Soldiers who have said that if you want to support them, stop burning through so much gasoline.

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