Our Flag

“The Star Spangled Banner, Oh long may it wave, o’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave”  – The US National Anthem

Battles

Sometimes it seems like a battle.  Not the battle for Fort McHenry in Baltimore harbor, but a battle for the symbology of America.  The flag of the United States, the “Star Spangled Banner”, was “claimed” by one side of the partisan debates for the past four years.  If you supported President Trump, you got the flag.  You put it in front of your house, or on the back of your truck.  If you didn’t, well, it wasn’t yours.

It was a way to make “Resistance” feel somehow “un-American”.  

I resisted that trend from the very beginning.  There’s been a flag, the Star Spangled Banner, waving at the front of my house for decades.  With the election of Donald Trump, I was even more determined to keep it there.  American patriotism is not defined by partisan loyalty, and I was not going to allow one side of the debate to claim it.

But it’s been tough sometimes.  There are things that “we’ve” done in the past four years that I’m not proud of.  The same flag waving over my front door also waved over the border post in McAllen, Texas as children were taken from their parents.  It was on the uniforms of soldiers sent to clear peaceful protestors from Lafayette Park.  And Neo-Nazis in Charlottesville “proudly” carried it as they chanted, “Jews will not replace us”.  

The President that I worked to remove, by election, indictment and impeachment, literally wrapped himself in the flag.  It was “his”: to love America you must love Trump.  Towards the end it almost became a joke.   How many American flags were there on stage as Donald Trump falsely claimed election victory election on Friday?

Our Flag

So it was with a full heart that I watched Joe Biden and Kamala Harris claim the real victory last night in Wilmington, Delaware.  Sure there were Biden/Harris posters, handmade signs and a sweet fireworks display with drones.  And of course there were flags on the stage.  But what struck me was the number of people in the crowd carrying the Star Spangled Banner.  From little kids waving little flags, to full-sized parade flags carried by adults, to even flags thrust through the sunroofs of the assembled “drive-in”, socially distanced crowd.  

They were reclaiming our flag for Joe Biden, and for themselves. They were saying:  we represent America too.  And our America can be one of change, of hope, and of diversity.  President-Elect Biden (there – I finally typed it, I feel better already) offered a message of hope and dignity last night.  He repeated his mantra of the last two years:  though he was elected as a Democrat, he will be a President for all Americans. 

Legitimacy

There will be a battle on social media for the next few weeks.  “The Demon-crats cheat” has been the cry since before the first vote was mailed in.  Recognizing that he might well lose, Donald Trump tried to rig this election, to make it about letting “his” voters choose, and disenfranchising the rest.  The strategy couldn’t have been clearer than in the vote counts.  Mail-in voting was dominated by Biden, Election Day turnout by Trump.  It fit so perfectly into the “cheating” narrative Trump was pushing.  Where did those “mysterious” Biden votes come from in Philadelphia? Why weren’t they counted from the “start”?  It’s Philly; the Democrats always cheat in Philly.

Dude – they were in the mail, the mail Trump intentionally slowed.  And they “appeared” later, because the Republican Pennsylvania legislature wouldn’t let them be processed or counted until Election Day.  This wasn’t an accident:  it was a “grand design” of the Trump campaign to back their narrative.  The problem for them is – most people know it’s not true.

One Nation

The shock of the election for me was how many millions of people still supported Donald Trump.  But imagine the shock for them, those folks who claimed the flag, to find that even more Americans wanted Joe Biden?  No wonder the “rigged” election myth found fertile ground.  We live in our “bubbles”.  How could there possibly be so many Biden (or Trump) supporters?

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris earned 74 million votes, and still counting; the most votes ever for a Presidential ticket.  And they have an Electoral College victory, one that ultimately will be larger than Trump’s in 2016.  While it may take a week or two for that to “sink in” with the American people, I believe that most Trump supporters will come to see it as legitimate.  

And then, for a little while at least, we can all stand under the same flag: E Pluribus Unum.  Out of many one.  

Note: So I try to write essays in advance – and I had a long one on the election process all ready for today. But last night’s Biden victory speech was too important ignore – and so I wrote “Our Flag”. If you have more time on your hands than you should – here’s the “process” essay – Sunday-Sunday-Sunday.