BULLSHIT "PATRIOTISM" CONTROVERSY

From CounterPunch:

Obama and Those Lapel Pins

Illinois Senator and Democratic presidential candidate frontrunner Barack Obama has gotten himself in trouble with America's conservative voting block. Mr. Obama has chosen not to exhibit his patriotism with an American flag lapel pin, bringing down the wrath of those who would send young Americans to die in an imperial war while they themselves proudly fly the flag in the rear window of their SUVs. To add insult to this grievous injury, a photo has been discovered of Mr. Obama with his hand not placed on his heart during the singing of the National Anthem.

Might it not be possible to look at this in a rational light? Could thinking citizens perhaps put aside for a moment the notion that an elected official who does not wear a U.S. flag lapel pin is really a terrorist in disguise, ready to destroy the very foundations on which modern society is built? Could such an official somehow neglect to place his hand appropriately during the singing of the anthem and still not be courting a one-way trip to Guantanamo?

Mr. Obama explained his decision to stop wearing the lapel pin. Said he: "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."

One with a short memory may not recall other badges of patriotism trotted out by the government prior to the obscene invasion of Iraq. Perhaps one's favorite restaurant stopped serving French fries and substituted instead 'Freedom Fries.'

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As regular Real Art readers, all six of them, surely know by now, I have some very big political differences with Democratic presidential frontrunner Barack Obama, and I will continue to attack him from the left, right up through the November election and beyond, if Hillary doesn't manage an upset victory, in which case I'll attack her through November and beyond. But I'm not going to sit here and let these mindless bullshit GOP ad hominem attacks on the senator from Illinois go unchallenged--indeed, if Obama does get the nomination, it's going to get much worse, with the corporate media piling on, and with racist attacks from McCain surrogates fouling the air.

At any rate, this bogus lapel pin controversy brings back some bad memories for me. In the months after 9/11, as Americans lusted for the blood of anybody in a turban or with a Muslim sounding name, American flags, I'm sure you recall, were everywhere. Being an American, I'm generally very fond of the stars and stripes, and the democratic ideals the image represents. But after 9/11, the flag, temporarily I hoped, lost it's traditional meaning: the US flag, at that point, meant "kill Muslims now." I mean, any individual can make any symbol mean whatever he wants it to mean, but in this particular socio-historical context, the flag came to mean war, hate, and vengeance.

I refused to join in the tribal and xenophobic flag fest. I was also very troubled by the Texas state legislature's new law mandating school children's daily recital of the pledge: I love the pledge of allegiance, but in this new context, it became a pledge to hate and kill; fuck that.

Beyond the shifting symbolism of the flag, I was also horrified by the flag phenomenon's shallowness. Love of country had been reduced to the equivalent of wearing a rock band or sports team tee shirt. While the suggestion that patriotism is as simple as being a good consumer, as buying the correct nation-loving products, seems ironically appropriate for the materialistic era of gross consumerism in which we now live, it renders actual citizenship moot. That is, if you love your country, it seems to me that you ought to actually do something for your country, I don't know, volunteer, or protest, or educate fellow citizens, or engage in civic debate with your neighbors, that sort of thing. The flag phenomenon sidesteps it all: just display the correct symbols, easily purchased at your local mega corporate mart, and you're as American as pizza, tacos, and Chinese food. This whole thing was, and apparently continues to be, sick sick sick.

Obama's got it totally right on this, and god bless him for not backing down, as many of his Democratic colleagues have done repeatedly in the face of Republican brown shirt patriot squads.

Speaking of which, does anybody see any similarities between the flag pin thing and Nazi armbands? Obviously, I do.

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