They did it again. They questioned Barack Obama's patriotism at the debate on Tuesday because he, like most of his fellow Democrats including Hillary Clinton, does not wear a lapel pin of the American flag.
From time to time, a flap arises over the flag and political people try to use it to confirm someone's patriotism or lack of it. Occasionally, some deranged Senator or Congressperson decides we need to draft another anti-flag burning amendment, which of course, never goes anywhere because the American people are smart enough to realize the insignificance of this issue. Rush Limbaugh used to routinely accuse the Democrats of elevating symbols over substance, but when it comes to the flag, no one can manipulate symbols like Republicans.
From the President on down, nearly every male leader on the Republican side has worn a flag lapel pin ever since 9/11. Some television anchors wore them for a while, and a few still do, though most have taken them off.
After 9/11, as everyone remembers, flags appeared everywhere. I had gone to my daugher's house that day to help with her new baby, and when I arrived home I saw that my entire street was lined with flags. My home was the only one without one as I had been gone when the neighbors united in this act of solidarity, so I quickly put my own small flag (planted on my lawn the previous Fourth of July by a realtor who used it as an advertising gimic). The flags stayed there for weeks, but finally as mine became worn and weathered, I took it down. A few weeks later many of my neighbors did the same.
The initial trauma of 9/11 had passed and the hopelessness we all felt, which led to our doing the only thing we could – wave the flag – was waning, and it seemed time. But since I was the first, perhaps some of my neighbors thought me unpatriotic.
I also followed the lead of many women in my town, and made my own flag pins out of safety pins and small red, white and blue beads. They were actually quite interesting, and fun to make and I wore one for several weeks, although I often forgot to remove the pin from the previous day's clothing to put it on that day's outfit. (I suppose George W. Bush doesn't have to worry about removing a flag pin from yesterday's suit as he probably has more pins than suits and keeps one on the lapel of each jacket.)
Eventually, I stopped wearing the home made flag pins as well, no longer feeling the need to remind myself of the symbolism of the post 9/11 flags. To me, they meant that I felt a solidarity with my fellow citizens, that I mourned the loss of those who died on 9/11, and that I was united with the President and the leaders of our country in finding a way to prevent another attack. I haven't stopped feeling that solidarity, but I no longer feel in sync with the president or the leaders of the country. Their way to defend the country, and what I consider the right way to defend the country, couldn't be more at odds.
At some point, the flag no longer represented the solidarity we as a nation felt after 9/11. At some point, probably when the nation became divided in their opinions over the Iraq War, the lapel pin became a weapon used by the Republicans to tarnish as unpatriotic all those who no longer wore it.
And now it is being used in this presidential election season. Neither Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton wear a lapel pin, and I don't think McCain always wears one either. But only Barack Obama is being singled out for not wearing one. Is this a racist thing, or sexist, or what?
Do we only expect men to wear flag pins? Is it only used against Democrats? And how long will American politicians - especially Republicans - continue to wear them? On John McCain's website there is a video, and many pictures, in which he does not wear a flag pin. Do we absolve him of this requirement because of his "war hero" status?
If being a war hero means you are automatically considered a patriot, no matter what you do afterwards, then we must also consider Jeremiah Wright, who volunteered to join the Marines during the Vietnam War, a war hero.
The flag is a mere symbol. And the wearing of a flag pin, most probably manufactured in a sweat shop in China, is not the way to determine one's patriotism. Just as I and my neighbors took our flags down a few months after 9/11, so Barack Obama and many other politicians stopped wearing a flag pin after a period of time. When a symbol no longer is serving the function that it once did, it is time to discontinue using it as a symbol. John McCain does not feel the need to continue wearing a pin. Neither does Barack Obama, nor Hillary Clinton. Wearing a flag pin does not make you a patriot.
What makes you a patriot is believing in and promoting the values and ideals the flag stands for: freedom, liberty, justice, and equality.
