It seems there is a surge of patriotism (or what passes for it these days) in various state legislatures and Minnesota in particular, which has just passed a bill requiring local government to officially use only US-sourced Stars and Stripes instead of imported ones.
“The biggest honor that you can give the flag is that it be made by American workers in the United States of America. Nothing is more embarrassing to me than a plastic flag made in China. This replica of freedom we so respect should be made in this country."
So said Minnesota House Democrat, Tom Rukavina, the bill’s sponsor.
“The biggest honor that you can give the flag is that it be made by American workers in the United States of America. Nothing is more embarrassing to me than a plastic flag made in China. This replica of freedom we so respect should be made in this country."
So said Minnesota House Democrat, Tom Rukavina, the bill’s sponsor.
Republican Rep. Dan Severson didn’t agree, arguing:
“That flag should be made throughout the world because it is our message to the world that there is hope for freedom and justice.”
Looking-out for American workers is a major plank of the Democratic Party platform whilst sheer jingoism and a sense of manifest destiny has become a Republican trademark so these representatives’ positions seem consistent with their party politics and policies.
Yet they still appear to be reversed from the “norm”--after all it’s the Democrat slighting the Chinese “plastic” flags and the Republican expressing a more “nuanced” global view (though on the other hand the Republican by implication is supporting outsourcing).
Regardless of the real and imagined ramifications of their respective positions on this new legislation, I’d say that beneath it all they do share a common perspective seemingly apropos to a nation that bears the word United in its name”--they are both united in a fantasy where nostalgic symbolism trumps reality.
Restoring the manufacture of the flag to its country of origin is nothing compared to restoring its original meaning, and no amount of arbitrary local legislation can do that.
Regardless of the real and imagined ramifications of their respective positions on this new legislation, I’d say that beneath it all they do share a common perspective seemingly apropos to a nation that bears the word United in its name”--they are both united in a fantasy where nostalgic symbolism trumps reality.
Restoring the manufacture of the flag to its country of origin is nothing compared to restoring its original meaning, and no amount of arbitrary local legislation can do that.
