All elections turn on trivia. This is because our corporate elites are able to frame the message with the cooperation of their media lackeys. So it was that Obama’s empty lapel became an issue. Why isn’t he wearing a flag pin?
There are certain things Americans expects from their candidates, and one of them is a crippled patriotism based on greed and exploitation as symbolized by a flag pin in the lapel. It is a patriotism of bile that appeals to the basest instincts of the nation. It is a patriotism that builds walls along its borders, joining the other wall builders of the world. (The Soviet Union started the practice in Berlin; both America and Israel have made an art form of it.)
The lapel pin signifies the patriotism of the scoundrel who uses his patriotism as cover for his efforts to undercut the freedoms that have made America so problematic to our political and corporate elite.
This is the patriotism that has given us the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act. It is the patriotism that has made torture a household word and has brought out all that is ugly and vile in the American psyche.
The flag pin the scoundrel wears in his lapel is a flag soaked in the urine of tyranny and oppression. Its red stripes are the blood of the innocent women and children who have sacrificed their lives so America could flex its military muscle.
Obama’s empty lapel tells the truth, and it is time we paid attention.
