Word: flagging
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...amendment supporters are not without a response to this criticism. Most of those who understand this objection maintain that the flag is so crucially special, so venerable, that it needs to be consecrated just the same...
Such supporters either want to mold the flag into a religious icon or are making a mistake that reminds me when--at age seven--I thought that war was a giant game of capture the flag. Motivated by a misunderstanding of the lyrics of the national anthem, I believed that the side first to remove the opponent's flag and replace it with its own was the winner...
Fortunately, my mother corrected my false impression by explaining in so many words that the flag is merely a symbol that stands for the nation. It is not itself the physical embodiment of the sovereignty of the country, she explained; there is an important distinction to be made between symbols and what is being symbolized. Of course, my mother is also a liberal...
...other possible rationale for near-unanimous Republican support is that conservatives know better but are caving into political considerations. There's no proof of this, but who could blame them. Minutes after the vote, the Citizens Flag Alliance, the coalition of 100 lobbying groups promoting the flag-burning amendment, sent out a press-release stating only. "See you in November." Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee warned. "The amendment is not going to go away," and tied its failure to opposition from President Clinton. Hatch vows to bring it up again in the next Congress...
...history repeats itself, the flag-amendment issue will have little resonance in the minds of voters come November. After the amendment's last run through Congress in May 1990, only five months before the election, Democrats gained seats in both houses, and not one Democrat lost a Senate seat While the electorate has come down repeatedly and overwhelmingly on the wrong side of the issue, at least it has had the sense not to vote for candidates on the basis of their support for the flag-burning amendment alone...