With patriotic tears
We got the same old men
With the same old fears
Standing at attention
Wrapped in stars and stripes
They hear the phantom drummers
And the nonexistent pipes
-Don Henley, If Dirt Were Dollars
The flag pin thing really rubs me raw for some reason as though putting some ridiculous little metal symbol (likely made in China anyway) on your clothing somehow makes you more American than others, it’s as superficial and dishonest as all of those idiotic yellow ribbon magnets that used to adorn the backs of gas sucking SUV’s before the actual costs of Republican wars of aggression made them too expensive for the average American to drive so now they sit in the garages of over-mortgaged, over-priced McMansions.
The reich wing screeching is now reaching an ear splitting pitch over the failure of Barack Obama to display his ‘patriotism’ by wearing that crappy little pin that belongs more appropriately in a historical context in some European countries where symbols were of the utmost of importance – post Weimar Germany comes immediately to mind as does Communist Russia or for a more international flavor Maoist China. Despite their standard propaganda the modern day Republican Party actually cribs a good deal of their tactics from various authoritarian and totalitarian regimes.
Coming in the aftermath of the manufactured outrage over Michelle Obama’s statement that was somehow twisted into her not being proud to be an American (personally speaking I am ashamed to be one right now for obvious reasons but I will leave that for another time) and the Clinton dirt diggers leaking of that oh so Islamic picture of Mr. Obama to the Drudge Report (now a bipartisan dumping ground for fascist filth) the keening of the chickenhawks over his lack of that shitty little pin is offering up a glimpse at exactly the divisive, scorched Earth campaign that the cult of the dung encrusted elephant is going to be running once again as November nears. The porcine propagandist, grand master Karl Rove himself was out pimping the red meat fake patriotism on FOX last week:
Rove: “Look, with all due respect, he is a very left-wing Democrat. He came out of a very radical background in organizing. His record in the Senate is the most liberal, according to the ‘National Journal.’ He has been a conventional far-left Democrat. And we ought to recognize that. As a result, he has these associations and these people he has been comfortable being with who are not in mainstream America. Look, after 9/11, when he said true patriotism did not consist of wearing a lapel pin – – an American flag lapel pin on your lapel, but instead speaking out on the issues, he was basically, with the back of his hand, being very dismissive to millions of Americans who thought it was a patriotic act to put a flag pin on their lapel.”
Colmes: “Does he lack patriotism because he does not wear a lapel pan? Is he basically saying, patriotism isn’t about a pin? That is his point of view.”
Rove: “Alan, I didn’t say that. What he said was that people — he was implicating that people who did wear a flag on the lapel were not true patriots. My point is not — in America, you get to decide whether you want to wear a flag lapel pin or not. What he did though was say, it was true patriotism to speak out on the issue, not to wear a flag lapel pen. He was the one questioning the patriotism of people with flags on their lapels.”
Colmes: “I didn’t get that from what he said. What I got –“
Rove: “Read the statement carefully. He said, true patriotism — quote, true patriotism consisted of speaking out on the issues, not wearing a flag lapel pin.”
Colmes: “He wasn’t questioning people who wore it. He was questioning the war.”
Rove: “No, he was questioning the patriotism of those who did put a flag on their lapel. Admit it. I’m not questioning his patriotism. But he certainly questioned the patriotism of millions of people who felt the simple gesture of putting the flag on their lapel was a patriotic act, and it was.”
Mr. Rove, the man largely responsible for the ongoing exploitation of the 9/11 victims for political gain and the body count from the illegal wars that he acted to sell for the sake of the ‘permanent Republican majority’ (it sounds so much like the Thousand Year Reich that it is eerie but then again Rove has copied Goebbels at every opportunity) continues to rise exponentially is like a bad case of genital Herpes, he just won’t go away. Well if the Democrats had anything even remotely resembling a spine Rove needs to be rebutted with two little inconvenient truths that will never rear their heads even outside the FOX ministry of propaganda studios and they are:
1: Sticking feathers up one’s ass no more makes one a chicken than wearing a flag lapel pin makes one a patriot. (In Rove’s case a gerbil is likely a more desirable object but only speculation on my part because all of those White House logs detailing the visits of one Jeff Gannon have disappeared down the memory hole:
and
2: The great misconception that the flag pin somehow is representative of 9/11 is total horseshit, actually the Republicans who defended arch criminal Richard M. Nixon during the Watergate hearings wore them too. Republicans love to have fun with little thingies like that as is evident from all of those thoroughly tasteless purple band aids that adorned lapels to mock John Kerry during the 2004 Republican National Convention.
It is of little surprise that such criticism comes from chickenhawks and armchair patriots who never had the guts to serve, with the exception of John McCain (a self-admitted “baby killer” and “war criminal”) none of those who are braying the loudest about Obama’s lack of that silly assed little flag lapel pin ever even bothered to put on a uniform in service to their country. As a military veteran myself I find this sort of rhetoric deeply offensive, almost approaching the level of revulsion and contempt that I have for those whose real idea of supporting the troops is sitting on their asses in front of the television and pumping their fists like they were cheering for a goddamned football game while the body bags continue to come home containing the remnants of what used to be our finest young men and women who were blown to kingdom come for the freedom of dittoheads to remain snake mean and willfully ignorant.
They are the ones who are shouting the loudest for others to die in foreign lands, they are the ones waving the flag the most vigorously while undermining all that it is supposed to stand for. They are the armchair patriots, and they are being used by fifth columnists who really do hate us for our freedoms. The insistence of the most vile of all, the Republican party, a group that has come to symbolize the darkest of all American traits to ‘wave the bloody flag’ and tar all others as disloyal and treasonous is a low point in our nation’s history.
Of course being a Democrat he is by that very association deemed `unpatriotic’ and a `coward’ in using the dastardly labeling of Rove and the rest of the unscrupulous and yellow thugs who control the government, the media, the courts and by extension are the operators of the message machine that spits out the hateful swill that motivates the most reactionary and ignorant segments of the populace who represent their base. This anti-American political party could never carry the torch were it not for their deception and demagoguery in playing to the most base and vile instincts of the perennially angry. Like any good purveyor of tyranny enabling double speak and race baiting, they have a little something for everybody.
Festering resentment towards women? Welcome to the party.
Hate Arabs, Mexicans and Blacks? Step right in.
Do you fear those that want to kill us because they hate us for our freedoms? Worry not.
Think that the liberals are destroying the country? We do too.
Interested in killing em all and letting God sort em out later? Yesssss.
Are you on God’s side? Hallelujah, so are we.
Do you think Muslims are terrorists and agents of evil? That’s why WE are going to kill them.
Do you want to defeat the homosexual agenda? We are on your side and God is too.
The Constitution? It’s just a goddamned piece of paper, we have our flag pins!
The Republicans have made hay out of their twisted exploitation of the phony patriotism tactic and they only continue to piss on the graves of every American serviceman who ever gave his life for this country with their exaltation of fascism swaddled in the stars and stripes. Give me reality, not some whacko fantasy about who is more patriotic than the rest. To use the words of George Bernard Shaw “Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to other countries because you were born in it”. I am conducting a trivia contest as to which 1930’s nation was the one where patriotism and the worship of the almighty state were exalted above all else.
A nice little patriotic swastika adorned lapel pin is the prize to the lucky winner.
Posted by Donn Marten 
Bahoowah 