The Trump tweet heard 'round the country:
Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag - if they do, there must be consequences - perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2016
The operative word here is "perhaps." Trump is tossing out a thought that should be disregarded.
PRESIDENT-ELECT DONALD TRUMP: Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag - if they do, there must be consequences - perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!
GET A GRIP!
There is no way burning the American flag would ever result in loss of citizenship or a jail sentence.
That act is protected under the Constitution.
Relax, flag burners and desecrators. You don't have to worry about losing your right to express your loathing for America and Americans.
Personally, I find American flag burners to be deplorable.
What's so nuts is that the people expressing their disdain for America by burning our flag have the right to do so because they're Americans. Very twisted.
I think burning the flag is a powerful statement and very revealing.
The people who do it tell a lot about themselves, and that revelation is good to know.
2 comments:
The most upsetting thing about his tweet, aside from him recklessly bombarding a newscycle with his limitless civic ignorance, apparent disdain for the First Amendment, and signalling to the most virulent nationalist factions of the party AGAIN, is that it calls into question the strongest argument for his candidacy: SCOTUS appointments.
By now, everyone has picked up on the hot takes that Scalia was with the majority in Texas v. Johnson. Trump himself has backed off of commitment to the Fed. Soc. list, and #NeverTrump warned that everything is negotiable with him. This is not to say, "I told you so," but instead that he needs the equivalent of a dog collar with adults in the room to keep him on his campaign promise to appoint judges in the mold of Scalia. If Trump tries to pack the court with judges who have a... shall we say "permissive" view of executive power and not traditional views on textualism and constitutional limits, there had better be political consequences from the right to counteract his nationalist cheerleaders.
Trump, Pence, and Priebus know that Scalia-esque Supreme Court appointments were the driving force behind much of the support he received from conservatives.
I have no doubt there would be consequences if that promise is broken. I don't think it will be. I'm not worried about it.
I don't know why every word uttered (or tweeted) by Trump is taken as if it's been etched in stone. Good grief, it was a tweet, not a King Obama sort of executive order.
Everyone needs to take it down a notch.
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