The French and the American Flag

The French have a problem with the American flag. They don't like to see the Stars and Stripes. It bugs them.

OK, that's unfair. It's not right to generalize like that. I'm sure there must be some French citizens that could not care less that many Americans love to fly Old Glory.

But there is a faction of the oh so sophisticated French (or arrogant snobs, if you prefer) that can't stand it.

From Agence France-Presse (AFP):

It's a true epidemic: the red, white and blue, stars-and-stripes banners are everywhere in the United States - on house facades, front lawns, cars and clothes.

"Epidemic"?

In other words, displaying the American flag is equated with the Black Plague.

Lame.

Hitting an high point on the July 4 US Independence Day holiday, it is a genuine phenomenon of American national pride that, inevitably, gets a good but also sometimes unwanted boost from commercial exploitation.

"Commercial exploitation"?

If that's a reference to Fourth of July sales by furniture and hardware stores and the use of flag images in advertising, that's silly. I wouldn't call it exploitation.

True, buying a new mattress has nothing to do with celebrating the Declaration of Independence; but I can't say that I think of ads that include the American flag as abusive. Yes, it can get to be crass; but the use of the flag in making appeals to the people is as old as the flag itself.

I don't see why the French should get bent out of shape over it.

Very lame.

"It's a little strange, this obsession of the flag," French author Bernard-Henri Levy wrote after traveling across the country.

"Everywhere, in every form, flapping in the wind or on stickers, an epidemic of flags that has spread throughout the city," Levy wrote in "American Vertigo" of the riot of banners he saw.

Yes, I suppose the "obsession" would be a "little strange" to French author Levy.

Read about "philosopher, intellectual, and writer" Levy here and here and here.

On the flip side, some Americans do find the "arrogant yet quick to surrender" French a little strange.

Perhaps it's a cultural thing.

Actually, I think Levy's puzzlement is what's a "little strange" -- make that very strange.

"Old Glory," as the US flag is affectionately called, can be seen in abundance through the year in the American heartland and the South, and to a lesser extent in cities like New York and Los Angeles.

Now that's funny!

The AFP takes pains to cut the lib glitterati in NYC and LA some slack. The unnamed author of the article must have friends there.

Patriotic flag-waving strengthened in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and increased even more with the beginning of the war in Iraq as a testament of support for President George W. Bush.

Ah, there's the reason for the befuddlement.

The American flag equals a sign of support for Bush.

No wonder the flag makes the French elite uneasy.

But the phenomenon hits its peak each year around the Fourth of July, when it becomes the focus of intense advertising and commercial promotions.

The AFP is so ... whiny.

Instead of whining about the American flag, why don't the French counter the "phenomenon" by showing pride in the French flag?

(I do mean the red, white, and blue French flag, not the white one.)

...Last week, the US Senate barely rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that could have led to criminal penalties for desecrating of the flag.

"I doubt very much that it is the end of the story," said William Galston, an analyst with the Brookings Institution.

"Global public opinion surveys regularly put Americans at the top of the patriotism index," Galston told AFP. "The US flag is the visible symbol of that strong sentiment... Even our national anthem is about the flag."

Ooh, scary!

American patriotism is dangerous!

Naturally, AFP digs up William Galston to comment.

The article doesn't mention that Galston was the Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy during Bill Clinton's first two years in office, nor does it mention that Galston is a dyed-in-the-wool lib and was a political advisor to Walter Mondale and Al Gore.

What an unbiased, Bush-neutral source!

Some questions:

When Americans liberated France in World War II, were the French troubled by the sight of the American flag?

Does it bug the French that the American flag flies over the Normandy cemetery, and ten other American military cemeteries in France, where THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of Americans are buried?

Hey, AFP! Hey, Levy! Hey, Galston!
Check this out!



Are you afraid?