The other day, I had a common experience. I was driving behind a pick-up truck, whose entire back window was covered with an image of the American flag, with a large bald eagle in the middle. I drew the conclusion anyone else would draw: I imagined I could make a shrewd guess about the political views of the driver.
As common as this experience is, we should not lose sight of the fundamental fact: the appropriation of the most common patriotic symbols by the right has been a strategic disaster for the left.The fact that the right has co-opted the flag and the eagle (see The Colbert Report) has resulted in a situation in which the use of those symbols by anyone on the left appears incongruous, even somewhat insincere. For once they come to represent a particular political ideology, it makes it seem peculiar for people with a quite different ideology to prominently display them. This leads quite directly to ridiculous episodes concerning lapel pins, and to repeated insinuations that the left is not really "patriotic". However idiotic these episodes may seem, they work. There are people who are influenced in their views by these sorts of symbolic gestures.
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