The Latest Kerfluffle

The latest shriek of outrage over the Obama White House has to do with First Lady Michelle Obama supposedly showing disrespect during a flag folding ceremony on Sunday.  I don't read lips, so I won't comment on what she did or didn't say.  You make the call:

The thing that occurred to me when I read the articles and editorials over this was that I wasn't surprised and it wasn't hard to believe. Never mind what she and her husband say quietly to each other.  Look at what they say and do when they want us to see it.  Mrs. Obama has publicly stated that she was never proud of our country until her husband started his run for our presidency.  Her husband has used the last three years to denigrate the idea that America is in any way different from any other country on earth, and that those who believe in its ideals and principles are obstructionists, racists, and bitter yokels that cling to antiquated ideas like 'rights'.

Don't get me wrong, I'm just as unhappy with Republican candidates that don't give a damn about patriotism or the Constitution unless they're giving a speech.  Wrapping yourself in the flag while wiping your ass with the Constitution doesn't go far in my book either.

I'm sure that if the White House comments on this at all, they will spin it as a misunderstanding.  The fact that I'm no longer surprised when a politician, and don't believe for one second that Mrs. Obama isn't a political creature to her marrow, disrespects the flag or the country it stands for, either through whispered exasperation or through using it to further their career, is what really gets to me.

If Mrs. Obama well and truly doesn't feel respect for the flag, then it's her right not to.  But those of us who do stand up when the flag passes, or stop to show respect when we hear Taps watch the news, and we will remember.  If the opposing party wants to use the flag to try to win our hearts and minds, we will look through the cynicism and find the thing they are appealing to our patriotism to get.  Either way, we will still be here, showing our respect, raising the flag, and standing quietly to the side as it is folded long after this administration is a footnote in a history book.