Yep! They’ve fought to force everyone at public meetings to stand and listen to their christian prayers before taking up government business, and the damn SCOTUS actually sided with them.
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This takes real courage. The Republican cult is becoming steadily more demented and more violence-prone, and—as this article makes clear—their politicians are still deeply committed to organizing the base into a mob for purposes of threatening and intimidating individuals who exercise their constitutional right to peaceful protest. I hope this woman and her family stay whole and well.
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Totally agree. I 100% support the anthem-protestors and politicians who support anthem-protestors and their peaceful excercise of their constitutional rights. But I also stand for the pledge and take my cap and try to reflect on the meaning of the anthem when I am in a public setting because I think of the anthem -whatever its origins, historical oddness and sordidness - now stands for a clarion call in this dark times. So when I hear “Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave” - I see it as a resistance call against the outrages of this administration - that we as Americans won’t accept authoritarianism, misogyny, xenophobia and white male nationalism, as our core values. That the banner waves for all. Corny, I know.
That said, this is the fight that the GOP and Trump desperately want. It’s a conversation on their terms in their language and helps them draw in independents who think “The GOP is nuts but the so are the libtards”. Elected officials should focus on the outrageous policies, greed, corruption and incompetence and not boil down the fight to simplistic symbols.
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Anyone who thinks in these words - “The GOP is nuts but the so are the libtards” - is nowhere near as “independent” as they think they are. The imbalance of epithets gives it away.
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I"m of the opinion that this administration must be challenged by every means possible. That includes demonstrations and protests against the cult that wants to take over the country from patriotic Americans - us.
Plus the whole world is watching and it only helps when they see that a majority of us hates this president and what he’s doing.
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I love this idea … but boy, I’m a little afraid of what would happen if I did this in a public place here in Florida. I mean, at least this woman’s neighbors are largely Democrats (boy do I miss that part of living in CT). Here, they’re all Teathuglicans. And they’re armed and standing their ground.
Pablo - pay less attention to the symbols, and more attention to the ideals represented by the symbols. That’s your clue for the day.
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I used to omit the “under god” part and through high school used to end with “liberty and justice for a few.”
As a grownup, I see the idealism in the “for which it stands” part, and I truly believe (have believed until recently, that is) that the nation should take a bit of pride in ever expanding the definition of “The People.”
ETA: “used to” because I don’t say the pledge at all anymore,
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“Brave men died for our freedoms, so shut up and do as you’re told.” It’s an old Republican formula.
Over the last quarter century, I’ve watched Republicans parlay increasingly vile and reckless public misconduct into total power, so no: I don’t think Democrats need to be afraid that someone might misinterpret their actions, nor do I think Democrats need to live life according to a credo of “uh, oh, I’d better not do anything in public that Sean Hannity might deliberately and maliciously misinterpret.”
Democrats need to step up and be bold, and count on the ability of “independents” to look at threatening, screaming mobs organized by Republican politicians to harass and menace one brave little woman, and think “thank God for the libtards, let’s put a stop to the bloomin’ GOP while we still can.”
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'Haddam resident Marine Pablo Arroyo told Schlag she should protest on her own time.
“I am not here to disrespect you as you’ve done to my flag, my country,” Arroyo said.’
Marine Pablo Arroyo must be a Republican, or a Republican-leaning so-called Independent. Her utterance is of a piece with their ignorant and disgusting behavior.
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“And to the Republic for which it Richard Stans”
Leaving this here.
…the young boy with the perfect Aryan features and angelic voice belts out “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” with increasing fervor until the entire garden party stands and joins him in song. Eventually we get a wider shot of the boy to reveal his swastika armband and Sieg Heil salute. Most of the others are singing along as much out of fear as anything, all except one old man, who looks despondent knowing that his silent, seated protest is utterly futile.
And how can we be sure that our nation is (will be?) getting it right?
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Start with the fact that we are not Weimar and not even close.
Remember that we are the majority by a large margin and we are extremely diverse and Germany was not diverse.
We do not have hundreds of years of an anti-Semitic tradition.
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Except independents do not roll that way. See election results of 2016.
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She said she has received harassment and threats over her protest and calls for her resignation.
Not surprising given all the additional criminals and thugs Trump has pardoned back onto the streets lately.
I still do that to this day, and am often amused by the reactions when those around me realize I omitted the christofascist part…
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What a shame to see right-wingers behave as they are over this in the Constitution State.
Someone should remind everyone that brave men and women died for her to protest as she is doing.
I belong to a religion that does not take oaths nor venerate symbols. However, from childhood, I have believed that the pledge and like demonstrations of supposed patriotism, are superficial, idolatrous, small-minded and coerced. They are talismans of mass delusion, the foundation of fascism.
Amen!