Tom Kando
The MAGA people seem to claim a monopoly of our flag. The Trump rallies always host thousands of star-spangled banners. Maga people’s cars float Old Glory and display the flag in conspicuous bumper stickers. The Trump presidential campaign features innumerable US flags.
And let’s not forget the dozens of Stars and Stripes in the hands of the insurrectionists on January 6 (along with several Confederate flags, by the way - something better called treason than patriotism).
Obviously Trump and his supporters feel that they own patriotism. They claim to be the true Americans. They claim to be America’s true owners. They seem to view this as an entitlement.
But I’m thinking: How come the Harris campaign doesn’t behave likewise? Why aren’t the multitudes at Kamala Harris’ and Tim Walz’s rallies also carrying thousands of US flags? MAGA doesn’t own America. Nor do Republicans love America more than do Democrats.
I am a naturalized citizen. My wife and I are both Democrats and we honor the flag as much as Republicans do. My wife is an Air Force brat. Her father signed up with the Navy a few days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was seventeen. Later, he moved over to the Air Force. The family spent the next few decades moving from base to base. They spent several years at Offutt Air Force Base, SAC headquarters, outside Omaha. He was a B52 tail gunner, flying nuclear bombs. My brother-in-law was in the national guard. Several other relatives of ours had military careers.
I myself did not serve in the military. Does that make me less patriotic? Trump didn’t serve either.
And does the fact that I was not born in the US make me less patriotic?
Most of the MAGA patriots were born in the US, and they claim to be more truly patriotic than immigrants such as myself. But you know what: Those MAGA patriots could be called “accidental Americans,” since their US birth was not their decision. My patriotism, on the other hand, is demonstrated by the fact that I CHOSE to become an American.
leave comment here
