ReclaimOurFlag
Our Flag has been co-opted and used to manipulate Americans by Right Wing extremist
politicians and organizations
Extremist politicians such as Donald Trump, the modern GOP, wealthy political manipulation organizations (super-PACs) and White Nationalists - manipulate Americans by co-opting our Flag. These groups heavily use our Flag to falsely brand as "patriotic" their often anti-American agendas. Their agendas are in reality often directly opposed to "Liberty and justice for all" counter to the qualities that define our Flag. Observe the intense "branding" with use of imagery of the Flag by these organizations as highlighted below.
They do so by:
​
1 - Fetishizing the flag itself - rather the "Liberty and Justice for All" values it purely represents. Literally branding themselves, their events and their organizations logos with our Flag.
​
2 - Claiming to be the rightful arbiters of what our Flag represents and defining who is a "Patriot"- in most cases a uniformly narrow, restrictive exclusionary definition.
​
3 - Claiming "rightful" ownership of our Flag has two significant consequences:
a) They are automatically perceived as "Patriotic" Americans representing "American values"
b) They create an instant disadvantage for anyone who opposes them as being "anti/un-American"; which is an inherently weakened (and false) position.
​
4 - They brand and energize themselves as "real Americans" and "Patriots" with their "ownership" of the Flag to "prove it"; falsely linking their often anti-American (exclusionary) values and policies as rooted in "history" and (falsely) as "American values".
​
5 - As with many symbols and institutions political extremists lay claim to an issue such as "meaning of the flag" and definition of a "Patriot" - as they do so mostly unopposed. The Flag must be part of the movement to reclaim America and needs to be directly attended to.
​
Use and co-opting of Flag imagery to brand Nationalistic exclusionary ideology as "patriotic" and "American":
​
1 - Colors: Red, white and blue
Main color scheme of FOX News logo, O'Reilly/Hannity logos, NRA, Citizens United
​
2 - Partial American Flag images
Also Citizens United (two sets of stripes, stars); Fox News studio set backdrop/desk
​
3 - American Flags themselves
Emphasized at political events, speeches, and demonstrations. Often in abundance at extremist, Rightwing, GOP political events, speeches or demonstrations.
​
4 - American Flags in excess
A record 79 images of our Flag at Donald J. Trump's RNC Convention acceptance speech 2016 (see below)
​
Observe the imagery used by politicians - count the Flag images/derivatives or direct use of flags. The Flag and it's colors may not "work on" perception in obvious ways but doing so taps in to patriotic feelings - something deeper as most Americans feel an allegiance to America and are often swayed by emotion not thought or facts. The Flag unites and but it can also divide.
​
Question: How many Flags did Donald J. Trump surround himself when he accepted
the GOP nomination in 2016?
For candidate Donald J. Trump's acceptance speech he used a backdrop of digitized Flags.
36 x 2 (reflected off floor) + 5 (background screen) + 2 (physical offstage) = 79 + flags. (See below)
