Stars and Strips and Straightjackets

This is Benny Johnson. Chances are you don't know him. I didn't until Facebook started polluting my feed with posts from him. And other right wing clowns like Tom Tancredo. Dan Crenshaw. And the infamous Kelly Macenany Fan Club page. 

One of my Facebook cohorts alerted me to the fact that this is no accident. The algorithm detected my hyper aware political streak and started populating my page with posts they know I could not resist engaging with. And they were right. 

I cannot let these asshats ago unanswered. Especially when they spew such nonsense. And a cutting retort flashes in my fingertips before I can say to myself, "just keep scrolling."

Benny, for those who can't read the small type, is the Chief "Creative" Officer at Turning Point USA. Never heard of Turning Point? Put simply they are the reincarnation of Hitler Youth. Swallowing up uneducated, unquestioning youth into a cult of junior fascism and flag fetishism.

And on that I'd like to sidetrack, take a hard turn to the right and ask what the fuck is it about Americans and their flags? 

The unbridled adoration and near religious fanaticism about the flag is unreal. It is hard not to draw correlation between our obsession with the Stars and Stripes and our 20th century Aryan nationalist counterparts and their ruthless devotion to the swastika.

Figure A.

In normal times, I would have nothing disparaging to say about the American flag. I love the flag. In fact, following the tragedy of 9/11 I bought one and waved it proudly on the flag post that still remains on one of the wood beams that hold up the overhang on my porch.

But these are far from normal times. 

Figure B.

Republicans and the GQP have misappropriated the American Flag. 

They took the piece of cloth and left everything it stands for behind, including the pillars of our Republic, like trust in the Constitution (all of it not just the 2nd Amendment), a belief in justice, equality, separation of church and state, and faith in free and fair elections, the institution that arguably separates Americans from all other nations of the world.

Figure C.

As one of my Facebook friends put it so eloquently, "Pageantry is not patriotism." 

In 2021, it's something scarier.

Figure D.