Raise Up Your American Flags, Libs!

When I arrived at work today, I saw half my coworkers decked out in red white and blue t-shirts, cowboy hats, and even bald eagle temporary tattoos. The other half of my coworkers stood stiff and uncomfortable, noticeably absent of any national colors. Neither half should be surprising. While patriotism is still alive and well in much of America, much of the radical left is nurturing a growing distaste for nationalist symbols, especially the American flag. I usually consider myself part of the radical left, but I can’t quite get on board with those of us who choose to eschew the flag. 

Of course, I get where we’re coming from. Our country was founded on slavery and genocide, and poses a serious threat of re-electing Donald Trump. It’s no wonder we are disturbed by an in-your-face, kitschy celebration of the United States. Such patriotism can feel thoughtless, blinded by privilege, even insulting. But indifference or contempt around the symbolism of our country is just as dangerous.

If we decide that the American Flag is a symbol of white supremacy, it will become one. All it takes is for everyone who is interested in racial justice to distance themselves from the flag. Then who will be left? The white supremacists. And we will have conceded America’s single most powerful symbol to the enemy. Not only that, but our refusal to identify with the flag signifies that we think it incompatible with our own values. And by proposing that justice work is incompatible with the flag, we suggest that Justice itself is incompatible with our Democracy. This is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If we stop believing in our democracy, we will lose any power we have to shape it. And then we will lose it altogether.  

Some might argue that there is not much left to lose. Certainly, the United States has done a laundry list of things that make me ashamed to be American. Plenty of my friends are happy to casually assert that they hate America, and I see where they’re coming from. But when we say “I hate America,” what exactly are we comparing to? If we’re comparing to, say, Russia, even the US comes out looking pretty dang good. But people rarely seem to be comparing to Russia. 

Rather, when we condemn the United States, it often seems that we’re comparing our country to some sort of magical utopia, a place without Bigotry or Big Pharma. Or the closest thing in the real world, which is of course Denmark. Granted, Denmark does have universal health care, free education, and bikes. It sounds like paradise. But even Denmark has problems. Their immigration policies, for instance, are at best strict and could even be called cruel. In 2021, they instituted a new policy in which refugees could be moved to a third-party country while their applications were processed, a policy which the UN criticized as posing safety concerns for the asylum seekers. No country is perfect. (link)

I mention these examples to call into question the notion that anything else would be better than this. The sad reality of civilizations throughout history and the world today is that inequity is the pattern, not the exception. This does not, by any means, signify that we should tolerate injustice. But it should warn us that a “tear it all down” mentality does not necessarily mean improved conditions, especially for the least privileged among us. If Covid has taught us anything, it is that destruction and disaster always disproportionately affect the most vulnerable. So I am asking us to proceed with caution. We need to critique the US. We need to stand up, speak out, kneel down. We need to have dreams for our country well beyond the bounds of what currently feels realistic. But we also need to be pragmatic about the consequences of our actions. 

Now, if we really think that the US is unsalvageable, then we need to have a different discussion altogether. I respect that opinion, but I am not of that mindset. If you are fighting for something entirely radical, a sort of starting from scratch, you need to recognize that that is more work, not less. You need to think in minute detail about what kind of society and government you’re envisioning. You need to be planning how to get there, and how to protect the most vulnerable populations in the turmoil on the way. It is not as simple as “screw the US” and call it a day. 

If you think, as I do, that our Democracy is worth fighting for, then we have to learn to rally around it. We have to have a cultural center - a shared collection of values, symbols, and rituals that inspire us towards justice work. Right now, it feels that the specific segment of radical liberals I mean to address are very good at knowing what we’re against. We’re against the flag, against Trump, against police and prisons. The list goes on. But what are we for? When you only know what you are against, the most you can hope for is a rebellion. For a revolution, or even any revolutionary action, we have to know what we are fighting towards.  (I wish I could claim this framing as my own, but I have to attribute it to Grace Lee Boggs, brilliant theorist and activist, in her work the Next American Revolution). We need to spend time envisioning the kind of country we want to be a part of. And then we need to get inspired to bring that version of America into existence. And for that we need the flag. 

The flag is a symbol. Symbols, like anthems and rituals, are the ways that movements build momentum. They are powerful tools for creating unity and a sense of belonging within a political group. At their base, symbols teach us what to care about. They help us make sense of what we value, what we want to protect and rally around. Just like my favorite ceramic tea mugs, they are a vessel that starts out empty. But with every ritual and tradition, every time we kneel before them, stand for them, or salute them, we fill them up, imbuing them with power. They get stronger with time, which is part of why the flag is such a potent one. It has been around for hundreds of years. We grew up raising it each day in school and saluting it at baseball games. The American flag has been vested with so much ideological might it is in danger of spilling right over. There is no rule that says we have to forfeit that power to the MAGA folks. Let’s use it, for our own justice-centered purposes. 

So raise up your American Flags! Put them up beside Pride Flags and Planned Parenthood Stickers stickers and Black Lives Matter signs. Kneel at the national anthem for the ways it has failed us, and still find ways to lift up the symbols of what we hope to achieve. We have a right to shape the future of the flag, just as we have a responsibility to shape the direction of our democracy. 

For me, the American flag encompasses the Appalachian Mountains, and the public  school teachers that helped shape my path, and all the local nonprofits doing the good work to support my home community. It is a symbol of Amanda Gorman, our first national Poet Laureate, and Megan Rapinoe, our pink-haired soccer superstar. It stands for Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Michelle Obama just as much as it stands for Donald Trump. Unless we decide that it doesn’t.