Trump declares ‘consequences’ for flag burners

Even though my line of work is rooted in the First Amendment and freedom of speech, I’ve long felt that flag burning is a reprehensible gesture.

First, flags were burned at some of the protests to his election victory earlier in November. Again Johnson with his pal Eichman burned our flag in D.C.to test the law.

Another possibility would be for a protester to burn a large photograph of a flag, or a flag-shaped cloth upon which the stars and striped appear on only one side – neither of which is a “flag”, but the burning of which would arouse the same strong feelings as the burning of a true flag.

Trump tweeted on Tuesday that he believes people who burn the American flag should face either jail time or loss of citizenship.

What set Trump off on this subject is anyone’s guess, as are his motives for sharing this information at 3:55 a.m. One of them, the French philosopher known as Voltaire, is often credited with saying, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”.

SCOTUS decided flag burning is a form of “symbolic speech” that is protected by the First Amendment.

But Trump’s tweet put him at loggerheads with the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who sided with the majority in the 1989 decision that protected flag-burning as free speech.

In 1990, Congress passed the Flag Protection Act to outlaw knowingly burning or otherwise defacing the American flag. The red flag was viewed as a symbol of communism. “But I am not king”. But any such change may boomerang against Trump himself, who uses defamation as a political weapon.

Efforts to amend the Constitution to ban flag-burning have failed, as did a 2005 bill that would outlaw flag-burning if it was meant to incite a violent response rather than make a political statement. A Texas court had tried and convicted Johnson for the incident before Johnson appealed his case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

So let’s leave the First Amendment alone. This assault on Americans basic freedoms has alarmed many, including actor-activist George Takei who fought back with his own tweets. Ironically, a few years ago, he quoted George Washington, “If freedom of speech is taken away, then dump and silent, we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter”. Trump said in a tweet. I found a trove of opinions steeped in serious thought.

While I have the upmost respect and admiration for our servicemen and servicewomen, I disagree.

The American people need to be skeptical of every single person seeking power, even the candidates they like and support.

But make no mistake, both Clinton and Trump know a volatile issue when they see one. Hillary Clinton sponsored an anti-flag burning bill while she was in the Senate.