Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
The Obama campaign is selling a print of the American flag with the stars replaced by President Obama’s campaign logo, a fund-raising scheme that may be in violation of the U.S. Flag Code.
Breitbart is reporting that the Flag Code clearly states that “the flag must not be marked with any insignia, letter, word, signature, picture or drawing.” Even though the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that there can be no punitive enforcement of this code because it conflicts with the First Amendment right to freedom of speech, the citizenry has always had little tolerance for offenses against the stars and stripes.
For instance, in March of this year, veterans demanded that the Democratic Party headquarters in Lake County, Florida remove a flag that replaced the stars with a picture of Obama. The confrontation with Nancy Hurlbert, chairwoman of the Lake County Democratic Party, got ugly when Hurlbert refused to accept the fact that the flag was violating state law and instead accused the vets of being racist. Eventually, the vets prevailed and Hurlbert removed the flag.
The latest flag flap is a fundraising effort by Obama Campaign’s “Barack Obama Store” which is selling the offensive print, titled “Our Stripes: Flag Print” for $35.00.
Calling the item “creepy” and “narcissistic”, Breitbart’s John Nolte is anticipating the campaign’s reply should the mainstream media ever dare to question them about it.
“The obvious response from the Obama campaign (not that the media will demand one) will be that this is art, not the flag. But the Obama campaign is advertising this as ‘Our Stripes: Flag Print’, so by their own description they are admitting this is ‘our’ flag . . .”
He goes on to speculate what would happen if GOP challenger Mitt Romney put his “R” logo in place of the stripes. “The media would be in Armageddon mode right now over how egotistical the move is and how incompetent any campaign must be to sell something that so clearly violates the flag code of the United States. ”
Nolte concludes: “The media won’t hold Obama accountable for Fast and Furious, the deficit, the faltering economy, or lying about a lack of security that cost four Americans their lives in Libya — so this isn’t about to earn any kind of narrative. ”
Sadly, he’s probably right.
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Look at the Republican Convention Logo with an elephant stomping the flag or the Republican version of the flag with the 7 red stripes of the Ameican flag and the stars replaced by Romney/Ryan. At least this flag has just 5 red stripes.