What Obama should have done is seen the question for the bait it was, at best, or the glaring symbol of how little there actually is to report about this absurdly long campaign at worst, and ignored the question.
That said, for those who don’t like the guy, I really hope they can come up with a better reason than that he doesn’t wear a flag pin. If he started wearing two flag pins, a yellow ribbon, and a banner that said, “US is best, F*** all the rest,” would you start to like him better?
After all is said and done, when he said, “the American flag lapel pin. . . has become a substitute for ‘true patriotism’ since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks,” he was absolutely correct.
If you measure your patriotism or that of others by what’s on their lapels, you’re taking what should be a noble idea and making it shallow and petty. You’re putting patriotism on the same level as pinching people for not wearing green on St. Patty’s Day, regardless of how much they eat, drink, and make merry.
Can’t we judge candidates by, oh. . . I don’t know. . . what they propose or what they do, instead of what they wear?
Should the Catholic Church start choosing popes by the size of the gold crucifixes around cardinals’ necks?
