{"id":7783,"date":"2006-06-27T09:40:03","date_gmt":"2006-06-27T13:40:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=7783"},"modified":"2006-06-27T09:40:03","modified_gmt":"2006-06-27T13:40:03","slug":"the-american-people-may-be-aggrieved-but-not-about-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/the-american-people-may-be-aggrieved-but-not-about-this\/","title":{"rendered":"The American people may be ‘aggrieved,’ but not about this"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the debate on the [tag]flag[\/tag] [tag]amendment[\/tag] got underway yesterday in the Senate, one of the leading proponents of the measure, Sen. [tag]Orrin Hatch[\/tag] (R-Utah), insisted there’s a genuine public clamoring<\/a> for this amendment.<\/p>\n

“They say that [tag]flag burning[\/tag] is a rare occurrence; it is not that [tag]rare[\/tag],” he told the chamber. An aide hoisted a large blue poster detailing 17 incidents of flag desecration over three years. Hatch, citing “an ongoing offense against common decency,” read them all. “That’s just mentioning some that we know of; there’s a lot more than that, I’m sure,” he said.<\/p>\n

Never mind that, in most cases, the perpetrators could be prosecuted for theft or vandalism. For Hatch, this was sufficient evidence of the need for an amendment. “Now, I have to tell you,” he vouched, “the American people are aggrieved.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

First, those “17 incidents in three years” estimate is open to some debate — some senators counted seven acts in the last six years, others noted 10 cases over the last 10 years — but even if we accept Hatch’s numbers at face value, fewer than six incidents a year does not a [tag]constitutional[\/tag] crisis make.<\/p>\n

Second, and more importantly, is the notion that “the American people are aggrieved.” After all, this is a proven vote-getter, right? The only reason Congress is taking this measure up is because voters expect constitutional protections for symbols, right?<\/p>\n

As it turns out, not really.
\n
\nGallup asked Americans over the weekend if the support “a constitutional amendment that would allow Congress and state governments to make it illegal to burn the American flag.” Oddly enough, 54% said they oppose the amendment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It’s a pleasant surprise because I’d assumed for some time that the public would back the measure enthusiastically. Indeed, in 1999, a Gallup [tag]poll[\/tag] found that 63% of Americans supported changing the [tag]Constitution[\/tag] to prohibit flag burning.<\/p>\n

But if the most recent Gallup poll is right, there may be a growing maturity on the part of the electorate to see through cynical schemes that “fix” problems that don’t exist. It’s an encouraging development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the debate on the [tag]flag[\/tag] [tag]amendment[\/tag] got underway yesterday in the Senate, one of the leading proponents of the measure, Sen. [tag]Orrin Hatch[\/tag] (R-Utah), insisted there’s a genuine public clamoring for this amendment. “They say that [tag]flag burning[\/tag] is a rare occurrence; it is not that [tag]rare[\/tag],” he told the chamber. An aide hoisted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7783\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}