The American Flag Has Been Hijacked. It's Time to Take it Back.

Why flying the flag on No King's Day may be the most important action you can take.

Jun 14, 2025

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Hello, friends! I’m publishing my usual Sunday post a little early this week because of its topical nature. Hope you enjoy the read!

Tomorrow, June 14, 2025, is a day that will be marked by the 250^th anniversary of the U.S. Army, hundreds of nationwide “No King’s Day” protests, and, naturally, a bloviated military parade held in honor of a certain aspiring dictator who childishly wants his birthday to be celebrated as a national holiday (Rain!🤞). There was even a bill filed in the 119^th U.S. Congress, “Trump’s Birthday and Flag Day Holiday Establishment Act,” introduced in February by Representative Claudia Tenney (R-NY-24), that tries to formalize this. (I shit you not. It’s H.R. 1395.)

However, June 14 marks another American observance, one that people have spent less time talking about recently—Flag Day.

Image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_Day_(United_States)

Yes, Flag Day. This observance (along with Arbor Day) is more often the butt of throwaway jokes than it is an actual observed holiday. But hear me out. I think Flag Day may be the most significant occurrence this weekend.

Tomorrow, we have the opportunity to reclaim our flag, affectionately referred to as the Stars and Stripes, from the bad actors who have co-opted it for their anti-American purposes. Tomorrow can be more than just another Flag Day; it can be Reclamation Day for our nation’s banner. We just have to seize it.

One person I think would have wanted us to reclaim the flag is my maternal grandfather, Max Andler. Papa Mac, as we called him, was a World War II veteran—an army medic who was severely wounded when a shell exploded near him. He loved the American flag and loved seeing it on display. When he and my grandmother moved into a senior living community in Florida, he quickly noticed there was a flagpole in the community, but no flag. He asked the community manager why there wasn’t a flag flying and was told there was no one willing to take responsibility for it.

At Papa Mac’s request, the manager purchased a flag to fly over that community. And every day thereafter, following his morning davening (the Yiddish word for “praying”), Papa Mac would go out and raise the flag. It was part of his morning ritual. Whenever we visited, he always asked my brother and me to come raise the flag with him. He wasn’t just proud to raise the flag; he was proud to share this tradition with his grandsons. I wish I had realized then the significance and poignancy of those moments with him.

Somewhere in my parents’ house is an old photo of my brother and grandfather raising the flag together. If my folks can find it and digitize it, I hope to place it here. Until then, the flag will do,

Whenever one of his children moved into a new house, Papa Mac always gifted them with a flag to hang from the front stoop. He also gave out little American flags to friends and family on all the patriotic observances: Memorial Day, 4^th of July, Veterans Day. He was incredibly patriotic and strongly believed in America and what our country stood for. I don’t recall if he observed Flag Day, but if he did, it would not surprise me.

Flag Day was first proposed in 1861 to rally support for the Union during the American Civil War. The date was chosen to commemorate the adoption of the flag of the United States of America on June 14, 1777 (Wikipedia, 2025).

The Confederates who had seceded from the Union had no love for the Stars and Stripes. They were beholden to the new flag of the Confederacy, the Stars and Bars, and later to the Confederate Battle Flag.

To many white Southerners, the American flag symbolized federal tyranny, northern aggression, and an existential threat to slavery and the autonomy of Southern states. These secessionists rejected, disrespected, and in many cases desecrated the flag of the United States.

Despite this, the American flag has been stolen and co-opted by the biological and spiritual descendants of these same secessionists—the radical right-wing individuals and groups who comprise the MAGA leadership, as well as much of the rank and file. Ironically, those who fly both the U.S. and Confederate flags together are ignoring—or perhaps attempting to revise—the fact that Confederates saw those two flags and what they stood for as completely incompatible. In many ways, it’s strange to see their hatred and intolerance wrapped so tightly in the Stars and Stripes.

The design of the American flag is deeply symbolic. Seven red and six white stripes represent the original 13 colonies that declared independence from Britain. The stars, currently numbering 50, represent the states in the Union. And the colors chosen for the flag—red, white, and blue—each represent virtues held dear by the American people: red for valor and bravery; white for purity and innocence; and, perhaps most significantly, blue for vigilance, perseverance, and justice (USA.gov, 2024).

The three values represented in the blue of the American flag are what we must stand for on No King’s Day.

Vigilance against rising tyranny.
Perseverance in the face of overwhelming odds.
With Justice as the overarching principle that guides our actions.

In the early decades of the 21^st century, our flag has become shorthand for a vision of America that prioritizes Christian nationalist values, nativist beliefs, strong-arm tactics, and allegiance to one man, a man whose cult of personality threatens to destroy the principles upon which our nation was founded.

The American flag is being used to project a very specific and exclusionary vision of patriotism and American identity, one that considers undesirable those who dissent or seek to protest the actions of this regime.

But dissent is a key component of the American identity. You cannot legislate it away or disperse it through threats of incarceration and violence. Our nation was born in dissent. It is our right to protest against our leaders, be they corrupt 18th-century monarchs, vicious 21st-century despots, or just good, honest men who have made choices we disagree with.

Despite the efforts of Administration 47 to forbid and criminalize any form of dissent against their policies and actions, the right to protest an oppressive government is ours, guaranteed in our First Amendment. To suggest otherwise is antithetical to what our flag stands for. In this regard, the American flag is the perfect symbol to rally around on No King’s Day. Dissent is what No King’s Day is about.

Historically, the American flag has stood for national unity, particularly in times of war or national crisis, and for freedom and democracy, as rooted in the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

Now, rather than standing for unity, the flag is being used to divide the American people. In recent decades, it has become a contested and deeply politicized symbol. To some, it is now predominantly associated with politically conservative or nationalist movements, many of which wield the flag in a belligerent manner.

As a result, on the political left and in marginalized communities, the flag can now feel like a symbol of exclusion, aggression, or dominance. It can be intimidating or alienating when flown in certain contexts, such as by armed protesters at the January 6th insurrection, on aggressive-looking pickup trucks festooned with flags, far-right stickers, and decals (see my essay below), or at nativist, hate-tinged anti-immigrant rallies.

The One Where I Almost Fought a Nazi

Jeff Feldman, MSW, LSW

Apr 13

A black pickup truck, I think a Ford F-250, approached, no fewer than four large, chassis-mounted American flags streaming aggressively alongside. It would have gleamed had the rain not doused the sun. My heart sank—I knew what message this vehicle was projecting: “Suck my patriotism, libtards! 🫵”

Read full story

This cannot be. My grandfather would weep if he knew the sight of his beloved American flag now created fear and anxiety for some in this country, including two of his grandsons.

Hitler and the Nazis stole the ancient swastika symbol and co-opted it for their own wicked purposes. What was once a symbol of good fortune, harmony, spirituality, and the cyclical nature of life was radically redefined by the Nazi Party. Now, the swastika has become globally associated with hatred, anti-Semitism, violence, and totalitarianism, particularly in the West.

We must not let this happen to the flag of the United States of America. We cannot allow the flag to become symbolic of just one particularly nasty political tribe. We must reclaim it for all Americans.

The American flag, in all its red, white, and blue glory, is a symbol that represents our nation’s identity, ideals, and our unity as a people. For many, it still stands for liberty, justice, inclusion, equality, and the fight against tyranny and oppression. It's been carried in struggles for civil rights, LGBTQ+ rights, anti-war movements, and immigration reform.

Every American—even liberals, progressives, immigrants, the impoverished, underprivileged, and oppressed—has an equal claim to the American flag, despite what MAGA wants you to believe. It does not belong to the radical right, no matter how tightly they hold it. (Sorry, not sorry, MAGA).

The flag still belongs to all Americans, and its meaning is not fixed. Which group controls the American flag and its symbolic meaning is still very much up for grabs. Ceding the flag to the intolerant right is a political mistake. It’s time we reclaim the flag as a symbol of inclusive, benevolent, pluralistic democracy.

So tomorrow, when you protest at the No King’s Day rallies—and any other time you protest the actions of this authoritarian regime—bring your American flags with you. Hold them high and wave them proudly. Reclaim the symbol of our nation’s promise from those who would drag it through the filth and mud.

To quote the Grateful Dead:

“Wave that flag, wave it wide and high.”

Also, to my father, who will eventually read this essay, and to all the other dads reading this—Happy Father’s Day on Sunday. Raise your children well. Thank you, dads!

Words over Swords

The One Where I Almost Fought a Nazi

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