Trump’s flag-burning order is just the same old contempt for freedom

Thomas L. Knapp

Photo by Avens O’Brien

Whether something is 'sacred' is a matter of opinion. Whether you 'cherish' the flag, or don’t, is entirely up to you to decide.”

Camera One: “When you burn the American Flag, you’re not making a statement — you’re inciting chaos. It’s not ‘free speech,’ it’s a provocation. One year in jail, NO exceptions.” That’s President Donald Trump, talking to reporters about his executive order on flag-burning.

Camera Two: “In cases where the Department of Justice or another executive department or agency (agency) determines that an instance of American Flag desecration may violate an applicable State or local law, such as open burning restrictions, disorderly conduct laws, or destruction of property laws, the agency shall refer the matter to the appropriate State or local authority for potential action.” That’s from the actual executive order.

In other words, Trump isn’t really claiming the ability to unilaterally, and formally, repeal the First Amendment, as he sometimes does.

He’s just throwing a public “find something else to charge them with!” tantrum, presumably by way of distracting attention from the ongoing inquiries into his long, close personal association with the late sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein, his embarrassment at still failing to deliver on his “first day in office” promise of ending the war in Ukraine, the bad economic news associated with his idiotic trade and tariff policies, etc.

Dog bites man story? Well, yeah.

But free speech is always worth defending, even when an attack on it is indirect and pretextual.

Yes, free speech, or at least “expressive conduct.” It’s not just me saying that, it’s the U.S. Supreme Court in Texas v. Johnson (1989): “Johnson’s conviction for flag desecration is inconsistent with the First Amendment. Johnson’s burning of the flag constituted expressive conduct, permitting him to invoke the First Amendment.”

Property rights are also worth defending. If you burn someone else’s flag without permission, that’s theft and destruction of property. If you burn a flag you own, well, you own it and you’re entitled by right to do anything with it you darn well please, so long as you don’t damage other people or other people’s property.

And by “damage other people,” I don’t mean “hurt someone’s feelings.”

According to Trump, “[o]ur great American Flag is the most sacred and cherished symbol of the United States of America, and of American freedom.”

Whether something is “sacred” is a matter of opinion. Whether you “cherish” the flag, or don’t, is entirely up to you to decide.

I’m not generally inclined toward flag-burning, if for no other reason than that I have relatives who “cherished” it, considered it “sacred,” and had it draped over their coffins, folded and presented to their loved ones when they died.

But Trump’s latest attempt to use the flag as, essentially, kitty litter to cover up his messes, tempts me to a “smoke ’em if you got ’em” attitude.

Editor’s note: Thomas L. Knapp is a director and senior news analyst at The William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism, where this was first published. Please submit comments at yourvalley.net/letters or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.