One of my favourite movies under the subheading “Cheesy Guilty Pleasure” is the original Red Dawn. The Red Menace invades the Good Ol’ USA and locks up good people in re-education camps, so it’s up to a roving band of kids to fight back. They do, and America is saved. Back in the 80s the idea of America-imperiled was big because there was also the miniseries Amerika on TV; I don’t remember it very well, but I do know I liked it enough to buy the paperback novelisation. That was the first time I saw an upside-down flag, on the cover of that book.*
When I think of the upside-down flag, that’s what I think of. Invaders with guns parachuting into Kansas and locking my parents up in a drive-in theatre to watch Castro Indoctrination Films 24/7.
I have at least five friends who this morning changed their social media avatars to upside down flags to reflect their feelings about the outcome of the election, and it befuddles me. The UDF* is a symbol of distress, not petulance. It’s a call to arms, not a method of pouting.
Here’s the thing, folks. If you think that the America You Love® is doomed or in trouble, this is a peculiar time to declare it. Perhaps a better time would have been during the early days of the Patriot Act when it became obvious that we were losing liberty in great handfuls so that The Terrorists could be stopped. Or maybe you should have pitched a fit about it when airports were paramilitarised and flying to Disney World became indistinguishable from crossing the border into Hungary. (Now that I think about it, I crossed the border into Hungary in 1986 with more ease than I was able to get on that Southwest flight a year ago.) The America You Love® has been fading away for a good while now.
But it hasn’t entirely gone, you see. You can tell that by the fact that you GET to have a picture of an UDF on your Twitter or Facebook without hulking armed forces knocking down your door and locking you in the repurposed basement of an old Sears downtown. You got to go to the polls yesterday and have your say. The thing is, so did everybody else. I’m betting that there was not one person who cast a vote in this election that doesn’t love America. So when you start being distressed over the fact that free people get to be free and make the choices that free people make you really look like maybe you don’t love the America That Is, but only love the America As You Personally Think It Should Be. Because this vote–like it or not–was one of the parts of the America You Love® which is still around. It’s kind of turning your back on the thing you purport to believe in to protest the outcome of that freedom.
I’m a libertarian. I’m very open about the fact that I believe America isn’t living up to all of its ideals or potential. But I’m not about to sit here and look at my friends, coworkers and neighbours and tell them that because we have different ideas about how the country should be that we must go to war. That is the gravest disrespect of America that I can imagine. It’s also a bit ironic that so many of my UDF friends are both upset over the ongoing legality of abortion on demand AND saying things like “we get what we deserve” as they hope for the country to enter a period of suffering. Because all the people you want to suffer are just as human as the babies you hope to save.
Is America in distress? I don’t think so. I think America is still here and still being America. You can rehang your flags right-side-up.
*Actually, it’s possible the novel came before the show. I don’t know for sure.
**I’ve got to abbreviate this sucker because I don’t want to spend my word count on the same three words repeated endlessly, even though this is NaNoWriMo and word-padded writing is de rigeur.
Maybe now folks can imagine how I felt during the Bush Regime.
Actually, I’m willing to bet there were a lot of people that didn’t vote out of love for America, but love for a rock star president. Big difference, and a frightening one, IMO. I hate how we treat politicians in this country, like some kind of royalty when they are OUR servants. I want to get back to that mentality. I want Congress to be proud to serve their country instead of doing it to get rich and feed their greed. Then again, did we ever have that mentality? I wonder sometimes.
I’m not happy about the election, but not too terribly surprised.
I’m not one of those flying the UDF. However, I do think America is in distress. Perhaps I feel this way because of some wrongly perceived notion about what the USA should be. That’s a possibility. I’d like to believe it’s also possible that sin destroys nations, we are in the process of seeing that, and I may be concerned about that. Hopefully, you’re right and I’m wrong. But if I’m right and you’re wrong, we’re both in trouble.
My 80s favorite was V. Space fascists!
A lot of the upside down flag stuff is on the same level as liberals complaining Bush stole the election. There’s a measure of post-election grumpery that usually fades in time as people get on with their lives. What is different is that I notice a lot of conservatives worried that this is a cultural shifting moment, and it’s hard to argue against it when a candidate as absurdly weak as Obama is reelected. It wasn’t that long ago that his own base was angry at him for doing little or nothing.
I spent my unhappiness around the convention when Romney was nominated. Because I knew then–yes, I did know then and I’m not armchair quarterbacking here because I said so loudly in many places at the time–that nominating Romney was tantamount to gift-wrapping another four years for President Obama. He was not a good candidate; as weak as the President was, the alternative was weaker.
As I’ve said elsewhere the gravest error the Republicans made was alienating the libertarian Republicans at the convention. They were still betting then that the Evangelical Right was going to win them the election–as it did for Bush in 2004. They failed to sense the shift in the zeitgeist that has a lot of those Christian voters moving toward Libertarianism.
Well, the entire Republican field was weak, and Romney really was chosen only because the others self-destructed or failed to run. By the time they nominated him there was no one left. That prolonged primary process hurt everyone, and Romney never really recovered from it.
I don’t really see evidence of that zeitgeist, unless Christians have more or less given up any attempt to work through the political system to the point where they wont care about abortion, SSM, drug legalization, and other things compared to a government small enough to leave them alone.
“Pouting” is exactly what it is. Well said.
I can understand folks having emotional ups and downs — this was an extremely close contest, and everyone was passionate about it. But the upside-down flag is disrespectful, and using it this way is both unpatriotic and melodramatically silly.
I wish I could post this to facebook, I have seen that as a profile picture. I am not pleased about it, and think that is completely inappropriate and overdramatic no matter what your politics are.
Casey, you’re welcome to post it to facebook if you like.
The upside down flag is apt because our president is a warmonger. He literally used drone warfare and murdered some Yemens only hours after he was reelected. We either go to war against our government, or we allow our government to continue to commit acts of murder in the name of war.
Just for the record, I should add that Obama has been drone-attacking Yemen for a very long time, and that this newest bombing in Yemen appears to be by US drone, but it hasn’t been 100% confirmed. I don’t want to spread disinfo.
Jill, I don’t disagree that we need to be more honest as a country about the exact nature of President Obama’s agressiveness. But I don’t know that “go to war against our government” is where I’m at with it yet. When I think “go to war against our government” I literally think of taking up arms and fighting to the death. And I don’t think this is where I’m at with Obama’s administration yet.
As, it would seem, that I’m one of the very few libs here, I’m curious. Since I don’t see crazy name-calling (he’s not an American, he’s a communist, he’s the anti-Christ, etc.), I’m going to go on the assumption that this a room where old-fashioned Eisenhower Repubs may be. What I’m curious about is what specifically Obama has done to upset you?
Just for the record, like Jill, I do happen to have some problems with him, but what’s your beef.
Just a couple notes so I would have an idea.
1. Crazy name calling is not on offer here. This is a place where adults come to have respectful conversations.
2. Jill is, like me, a libertarian. My problems with President Obama tend to be that he is more pro-government intervention than I like to see. In addition I would like to see us out of the war space.
3. A lot of liberals / democrats do hang out here usually, but I assume they’ve taken a few days off blogs in general. Otherwise Dolphin, bridgett, nm would all weigh in, I’m sure.
Well, that’s why I thought I could speak here. I’m sure you’ve seen some of the craziness and rudeness that’s out there on other forums; that’s why I mentioned that it’s good I don’t see that here.
My father tried to get me into Libertarianism when I was much younger, but I kept flummoxing by asking about who cares then for those who are unable to help themselves. He kept telling me the church, but there’s only so much the church can do. And, I’d ask, whose church? Once I started down that line of questioning (and I believe I was about 14 at the time), he just gave up and said I was too stupid to learn.
I’ve learned quite a bit since, but still have some of the same problems with it.
But intervening? Are we talking about the ACA here? Or the differing tax policies? Or enviromental protections?
There’s a lot of intervention out there. I agree with a portion of it, but yes, there are some laws out there that flummox me as well.
Could you be a tad more specific?
Oh, there are plenty of liberals and even leftists who hang out here. But some of us are willing to give people disappointed in the election results a couple of days to get over their exaggerated disappointment (their more realistic disappointments, I assume, will continue). And we agree with Coble that using a reversed flag to signify that disappointment is inappropriate on a lot of levels, so we’re not going to be disagreeing with her.
The only comment I’d make in addition to that is that if one wants to use a reversed flag because Obama is a warmonger, I don’t know what symbol of distress would have been strong enough for a Romney victory, seeing that Romney would not only continue Obama’s current offensive military policies but would likely get us into a war with Iran as well, given his statements. Oh, plus he’d reintroduce the use of torture. So that Obama seems to me a slightly less dangerous choice in that regard.
Oh yeah, that was a concern of mine also, especially since when he started in business, he met Bibi and found they had a LOT in common.
But my bigger fear was a rolling back of enviromental regulations. I agree that there are some that are out the window, but when I read of how the Onagalla Acquifer is being used up and as a garbage dump for chemicals, my reaction was one of intense fear. I mean, c’mon now – - some of that water is used to grow my food – - and yours!
Does anyone really want to find out 5 yrs. down the road there was radioactive and chemical waste in it?
Oh no, haven’t taken time off blogging in general and certainly not your blog specifically (despite being crazy busy lately, which may get worse after tmw, or not).
But when I generally agree with you on a criticism of “the other side” (as it were), but I have nothing specific to add, I sometimes feel that piling on, and rubbing it in, just isn’t really where I want to go.
I think YOUR criticism is valid and worthwhile; me chiming in to say “YEAH! So there!” not as much.
Hey Guys:
Just a heads up: We are trying to alert as many folks as possible to a Sayreville, NJ business who have chosen to desecrate the American flag to make a political statement about the Obama re-election.
Any assumptions about Viking Terminal sending a distress signal resulting from Hurricane Sandy and the resulting flooding however are incorrect.
1- A black wreath displayed on the upside down flag: clear indication that the owners feel our country is dead as a result of the election.
2- A fast check on the owners into their Facebook accounts and other sources shows a pattern of right wing activity.
3- Repeated requests for comment from the business on the flag display have been ignored.
I have no problem with any of their political affiliations or activities. I do object however to their disrespectful use of our flag to make a statement.
There is a grassroots Facebook website set up to rally members in the hopes of boycotting this business until they remove their distasteful display. Please LIKE and SHARE:
Search “Boycott Flag Desecraters” on Facebook or cut and paste:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Boycott-Flag-Desecraters/544316545582989
If those pictures don’t make you sick, check your pulse.
Boycott Flag Desecraters does NOT accept donations. It is a labor of love. Its goal is to notify the public of businesses that desecrate Old Glory.