I was sitting on the 400-yard range at Londonderry Fish and Game Club, Saturday evening, after sunset, waiting for the fireworks to start. LF&G puts on a display that rivals most towns. It has been our fireworks display of choice since at least COVID. (2020). And I’m good friends with the club President, Rick Olson, and his family. We know a guy, so we get really good “seats.” The fold-up camp chair variety you lug in and out with a cooler and bug spray. It’s open to the public, and yeah, you need to bathe in DEET or whatever, but the fireworks are always top-notch.
Waiting, as I said, and during a lull in conversations with the folks around me, I looked at my phone. Boston Globe. The Headline read (paraphrasing) Many have a complicated relationship with the American Flag. This is on the 4th, right around the fireworks hour in the Eastern Time Zone. I’m paraphrasing because by the time I went fishing for it the next morning, they had changed it. Sunday morning it was,” A Complicated Era for the Stars and Stripes.”
If you want to get an idea of the tone, here’s a taste.
Partisans at each end of the political spectrum use the flag to disparage the patriotism of the other side. Politicians on the right literally wrap themselves in the banner to proclaim their love of country. And protesters on the left wave the flag at mass demonstrations as a rallying cry to protect or expand American rights.
The fact that the Boston Globe could write, with a straight face, that “protesters on the left wave the flag to protect or expand American rights,” is a sign of mental illness, but one that regular Globe readers share. Blatant disinformation to implant the notion in the minds of not-so-regular readers or those who pay too little attention. I would go so far as to suggest that Globe writers and their editors have a not-so-complicated relationship with the truth.
About 70 percent of Republicans, and 60 percent of Americans ages 60 and older, fly the flag at least during national holidays, according to an April survey by The Associated Press and the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.
Conversely, about 60 percent of Democrats and independents said they never fly the flag, including about 75 percent of Democrats under 45, the survey showed. In addition, only about 30 percent of Black adults said they ever display the banner.
Leading up to this year’s landmark anniversary, a range of interviews by the Globe revealed a complicated relationship with the nation’s symbol, one that mixed nostalgia for simpler times, a yearning for shared values, and a recognition that even the flag now can be divisive.
You are welcome to read the rest (it wasn’t behind a paywall when I went looking) if you think it’s worth the effort, but the headline reminded me of something about the left. Something obvious that fits neatly into the stereotype. If the President were a Democrat, the Globe wouldn’t be writing about any sort of complicated relationship with the flag or the holiday. Lefty mayors and councils wouldn’t be downplaying the 250th birthday of America; Dems and their proglodyte minions would be waving it and celebrating… so would everyone on the right.
Not so complicated, eh?
We love America no matter who is in office. Democrats pretend to love America when it’s politically advantageous. When they feel like it represents values the misleading Boston Globe pretends are theirs.
