Should we start displaying flags on our cars?

[Ladyhawk]

I was thinking about framing and how it appears the right wing has stolen the American flag.

Why can't we fly it on our cars, too...next to all the anti-shrub stickers?

My car has been vandalized for sure once, perhaps twice. I think we need to reclaim some of these things. It's reframing the issue.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. I've been thinking about it

I think that an anti-Bush message with a flag or something like that would make it vandal-proof.

[w4rma]

2. Yup. (nt)

[democracyindanger]

3. Nah

Any freeper who'd vandalize your car wouldn't hesitate to rip the flag off because, you know, "yer not a real Amurikin."

[iamjoy]

4. It's (Literally) The Least You Can Do

flying an American flag on your car, that is.


I know, I'm tired of them thinking Dems are not patriotic and don't love our country, but loving this country is not just waving the flag and singing the National Anthem loudly.

If you must, try to find the bumper sticker that says "Proud American, Shamed by Bush" or "Pro-Constitution, Anti-Bush"

[mchill]

5. I wish someone would, instead, point out

that flying flags off of antennae, to the point they rip apart, is a desecration of the flag.

[mcscajun]

16. Indeed...

...none of these ding-dongs ever read the Flag Code.

The flag always leads, it does not follow. So it is appropriate to fly it on the front fender (a la the government vehicles that do) but Not out the side window; or worse, on the backs of pickup trucks.

[vpigrad]

6. Fly it upside down...

to denote dispair for the fact that this country has been destroyed beyond repair.

[Bouncy Ball]

7. I like the stickers that read:

"You don't agree with me? Well FLAG FLAG FLAG FLAG FLAG FLAG FLAG." And "My flag has more ripply things than yours does."

For the record, NO, I don't think we need to engage in the same mindless object worship that the right does. This strange jacking off to the flag that the right seems to engage in smacks of nationalism, not patriotism. Patriotism doesn't depend on a fucking magnet on your bumper. It's a feeling deep inside. It's not something that gets threatened so easily that you to have to attack others who don't engage in it (like freepers do). It's also not something so fragile that it takes loads and loads of tangible "evidence" to prop it up.

My people have been in this country since long before it was a country. Since it was just a small smattering of colonies. And I'll be damned if some heartless small-minded little CRETINS are going to force me to slap a sticker on my car to PROVE how I feel.

Fuck 'em.

[candy]

8. The right wing didn't steal the American flag---it was surrendered to them

I get really pissed when I see these kinds of posts. The flag belongs to everyone.

Start displaying it,and display it proudly----I do!!!!!!

[NMDemDist2]

9. Bill Maher on flying a flag on your car...

After 9/11, there was a lot of talk in this country about a "nation transformed" and a "sleeping giant awakened" and "everyone pitching in." But in the end, what did we really do?

We put a flag on our car. (Half of which were manufactured in Germany, Japan or Sweden.) Or two flags, if we were really mad! Big ones, up front, so we could feel like Rommel in his staff car, speeding to meet the Fuehrer. For months in the fall of 2001, our highways looked like a country fair on wheels. "Look out, Al Qaeda --- patriot on board!" I once saw a guy with five flags tell a guy with four flags to go back to Afghanistan.

Now, is there anything wrong with flags? Of course not. I like the flags plenty, but I never forget it's only a symbol, a reminder of what we stand for, not a replacement for actually standing for it. Brave Americans in past wars didn't die for the actual flag --- they died for the freedom it represents, including the freedom to burn it. Too many in America lead with their emotions when it comes to the flag, becoming illogically protective. Hell, the British treat their national symbol, the Royal Family, way worse, and they're people!

The problem with the flag at this moment in our history is we've become masters at fooling ourselves into thinking there is a way to get everything with very little effort. It's ridiculous we even need to be reminded of this, but just displaying a flag doesn't actually do anything, anymore than "tying a yellow ribbon" brings home a hostage or AIDS ribbons cure. If we think we've done something because we went to Kmart and bought a flag, then the flag is actually hurting, not helping us.

True patriotism is doing something for your country. If our car flags had to be earned with real contributions ---purchased with deeds, not dollars --- if each one we saw meant someone had given blood or volunteered their time or donated money or written their congressman or saved a gallon of gas, perhaps then we'd really be bucked up at the sight of them.

[Bouncy Ball]

10. Ooooo great quote.

Gotta love Bill.

Also, if you had to earn a flag to display on your car with actual deeds, you'd see a hell of a lot less of them, that's for sure.

(Most are made in China, though.)

[Ladyhawk]

11. Yeah, that's a good point.

I'm just thinking of confusing the freeper types who think the flag belongs to them. And I have done more than put stickers on my car...that's why the time after Nov. 2 was a great time of mourning for me. I'm still not through with the mourning.

I'm just wondering why we can't say by symbolism: "Look, I am an American, too."

Just before our country invaded Iraq, I was so angry I was completely anti-flag. The symbol had been hijacked by the nationalists to show their complicity in what has turned out to be a massacre. I was furious. I saw something in the middle of the road, thought it might be a snake, saw it was an American flag that had fallen off a car, sped up and ran over it ON PURPOSE.

Now, I'm wondering if we're giving them the tools to oppress us by letting them steal the flag.

[Clark2008]

17. I told a guy outside the gas station today

on Christmas, no less, that for what he spent for that magnetic ribbon, he could have spent on buying our troops a phone card so they could call home, free of charge.

He just snorted.

I'm bettin' he thinks that no would know about that, but they damn sure knows he "support our troops" 's dying by putting that stupid ribbon thing-a-ma-bob on his SUV.

:eyes:

[bobd]

12. I have the Canadian Flag on my Car

I will not, under ANY circumstances, fly the Republican flag or have it anywhere on things that I own. The Republican flag (stars and stripes) has become the symbol of hatred, intolerance, division, war and greed and I want nothing to do with it. It no longer represents what I hold dear.

[mslux]

13. Fly the Besty Ross Flag

A symbol of our fight against George then...

[Fla_Democrat]

14. Start?

It's been on every vehicle I've owned since the mid 80's. :shrug:

[Clark2008]

15. I already do

"We saluted this flag. We fought for this flag! And we've seen brave men buried under this flag. This flag is ours! And nobody will take it away from us!" ~ Wesley Clark.

[mmonk]

18. The no "W" sticker

works just fine. I won't fly one of those car window flags (except my Carolina Panthers one) because I don't want to be mistaken for one of the wingnuts that are flying them. I might consider one of the original flags with the 13 stars in a circle or a peace flag as a car window flag.

[proud patriot]

19. I have been for 4 years

that's why I picked the name I picked for DU

I even have a proud to be American sign right
next to my "I don't have to like bush to love
my country" sticker.