According to Section 8(d) of the code, “The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding or drapery.” Subsection (i) is even more specific: “It should not be embroidered on such articles as cushions or handkerchiefs.” And (j) states, “No part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic uniform.” That might suggest that the newly christened secretary of war should at the very least eschew his pocket hankies. The idea of blowing one’s nose in the flag is not a great look and probably not the image he intends. When asked, Kingsley Wilson, the Pentagon press secretary, dismissed the question and emailed, in part: “If loving one’s country enough to represent it head to toe is a crime, then consider Secretary Hegseth guilty. He is a patriot who reveres this country and our flag.” More pertinently, according to Susan Scafidi, the founder of the Fashion Law Institute at Fordham University, “a series of Supreme Court cases have established that First Amendment free-speech protections outweigh laws that attempt to prohibit desecration of the flag, including by wearing it.”

August 29, 2024

For generations, the Right has monopolized our nation's icons and rhetoric, appropriating to themselves the exclusive use of words like "freedom," "patriot," and the "USA! USA!" chant. But also symbols like the bald eagle, the "Don't tread on me" rattlesnake and, most importantly, the American flag.

For example, Trump and his MAGA cult hypocritically decried Black football players taking a knee during the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner, to which they claim sole ownership. But GOPers believe they themselves are free to distort and defile any of our country's representations. Take freedom, for example. Republicans want to force the rest of us to define it like they do — Restricting women's bodily autonomy, allowing corporations unlimited license to pollute the environment, and mandating which books school children should be permitted to read.

Then there's the flag. MAGAs think it's their own, private banner which they can misuse however they wish, despite a federal law called the US Flag Code (USC 4 §1) that spells out exactly how it should be treated. For example, the law says the flag must never be displayed with the union down, "except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property." Yet, as Faux News pointed out in June:

Supporters of former President Trump across the country flipped the American flag upside down after a New York jury's guilty verdict as a sign of protest to the perceived weaponization of the US legal system.

These MAGA-addled lawbreakers included RNC co-chair Lara Trump, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican donor Don Tapia and Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.

Republican vandals also flaunt US flags like the one pictured above, with pro-Trump slogans and his grinning mug plastered on it. Even though the Flag Code also states:

The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.

However, the most egregious insult to this national emblem came on January 6, 2021, when MAGA thugs attacked US Capitol police using flagpoles with American flags as weapons. One of them, an Arkansas truck driver who beat a police officer with such as weapon was sentenced in 2023 to more than four years in prison.

Which is a welcome result. But it's also gratifying to see the Democrats at last reclaiming the symbols and language of Americanism. Especially the flag. Because, as newsman Dan Rather, points out, "Old Glory belongs to all of us. It's not a Trump flag or a Republican flag."