PoliCon
11-19-2008, 12:37 PM
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122703075649037953.html
Yesterday we noted a story about liberals, prompted by the election of Barack Obama, making sudden shows of patriotism after shunning such displays for the past eight years. We wondered if the same thing had happened on the other side--that is, if anyone could find examples of conservatives suddenly displaying patriotism in 2000 (or 1980, or 1968 or even 1952) when a Republican won the White House after years of Democratic administrations.
So far, the answer is no. But a reader did call our attention to a somewhat similar phenomenon. An example comes from the Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne, Ind. At a tire shop in nearby Decatur, owner Greg Townsend "hoisted the flag, which has long flown in front of his shop, in the upside down position, a distress signal protesting the election of Barack Obama and Joseph Biden":
Some have protested that flying the flag upside down is a desecration, but it's not, he says, and firmly so, pointing to a printout of flag regulations. An upside down flag is a distress signal, indicating that people's lives or property are in danger. With the election of Obama and Biden, lives are in danger: all the unborn babies that will die the result of abortion. And property is at stake. The recent bailout wasn't a bailout of the American people, he said. It was the bailout of a bankrupt and foreign owned federal reserve system.
Townsend is not alone in using the flag in this way. We heard from one reader who said he, too, has been flying his flag upside down. The USA Flag Site features a discussion board with numerous posts from people who say they'll be flying flags upside down. Nor is this unique to the right: Another reader tells us that one of his neighbors had been flying an inverted flag but turned it right side up on Nov. 5. And of course John Kerry* famously posed in front of an inverted flag for the cover of his 1971 book, "The New Soldier."
Yesterday we noted a story about liberals, prompted by the election of Barack Obama, making sudden shows of patriotism after shunning such displays for the past eight years. We wondered if the same thing had happened on the other side--that is, if anyone could find examples of conservatives suddenly displaying patriotism in 2000 (or 1980, or 1968 or even 1952) when a Republican won the White House after years of Democratic administrations.
So far, the answer is no. But a reader did call our attention to a somewhat similar phenomenon. An example comes from the Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne, Ind. At a tire shop in nearby Decatur, owner Greg Townsend "hoisted the flag, which has long flown in front of his shop, in the upside down position, a distress signal protesting the election of Barack Obama and Joseph Biden":
Some have protested that flying the flag upside down is a desecration, but it's not, he says, and firmly so, pointing to a printout of flag regulations. An upside down flag is a distress signal, indicating that people's lives or property are in danger. With the election of Obama and Biden, lives are in danger: all the unborn babies that will die the result of abortion. And property is at stake. The recent bailout wasn't a bailout of the American people, he said. It was the bailout of a bankrupt and foreign owned federal reserve system.
Townsend is not alone in using the flag in this way. We heard from one reader who said he, too, has been flying his flag upside down. The USA Flag Site features a discussion board with numerous posts from people who say they'll be flying flags upside down. Nor is this unique to the right: Another reader tells us that one of his neighbors had been flying an inverted flag but turned it right side up on Nov. 5. And of course John Kerry* famously posed in front of an inverted flag for the cover of his 1971 book, "The New Soldier."