12-01-2016, 04:46 PM
(11-30-2016, 09:36 PM)Classic-Xer Wrote:(11-30-2016, 05:47 AM)Warren Dew Wrote:(11-29-2016, 03:56 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Our wonderful president whom supposed "libertarians" support, has a new proposal to violate our civil rights:
Trump suggests loss of citizenship or jail for those who burn U.S. flags
By John Wagner November 29 at 10:55 AM
President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened loss of citizenship or jail for those who burn the American flag, saying such protests — which the Supreme Court has declared to be free speech — should carry “consequences.”
Trump offered his thoughts in an early-morning post on Twitter, saying, “Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag.”
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Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag - if they do, there must be consequences - perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!
3:55 AM - 29 Nov 2016
51,285 51,285 Retweets 142,220 142,220 likes
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post...litics_pop
I hope that this is just a random twitter message, and not a considered opinion. Certainly as a conservative veteran, the freedoms I was trying to protect included free speech and expression, even if that expression involved burning of the flag.
However, this is a good reason why the liberals on the left need to help confirm Trump's initial Supreme Court nominee quickly. The list from which Trump is currently working consists of justices similar to Scalia, and Scalia was among the 5 justice majority that ruled that flag burning was constitutionally protected speech. Let's not give Trump time to shift to a supposedly more "moderate" or leftist judge like Stevens, who was willing to jettison this first amendment freedom.
Is it really wise to burn the American flag on a regular in front of so many Americans who value and appreciate it. You're a soldier. Soldiers are professionally trained to over look the burning of the American flag. The vast majority of Americans aren't trained professionals like our cops and soldiers. I'm not going to be surprised/shocked when a group or groups of flag burners find themselves being harshly confronted or viciously attacked by groups of angry Americans. I'm not sure if Nancy Pelosi would be able to handle situations like that if they were to begin happening all over the place.
I don't know about "wise", but I question whether there will be many physical attacks. The right hasn't given up on responding to that kind of thing at the ballot box yet. That's a good thing, because the leftist press would make hay out of any mob attack on someone for burning the flag.
In addition, when something like this comes up on social media, there are often conservative vets like me to express our view that, however much one might disagree with it, the freedom to burn the flag is part of the freedom we signed up to protect. Because this comes up pretty often in conservative circles, I think most conservatives understand the "free speech includes speech we disagree with" point of view.
In fact, I strongly suspect that's why the left is so much more willing to try to suppress speech they disagree with, as happens often on college campuses: there are few on the left who have really invested enough of themselves into defending our freedoms to have thought deeply about what those freedoms mean.
Videos do circulate about conservative students confronting and arguing with people who desecrate the flag. Perhaps the right has more faith in rational argument.