US flag stands for ‘GOP's white nationalist agenda,' must be ‘reclaimed’ from ‘fascists:’ LA Times column

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The Los Angeles Times published an op-ed early July 4 arguing that many "feel terrorized" by Independence Day festivities and that the American flag needs to be retaken from "fascists". 

The article, written by columnist Jean Guerrero, described former President Trump as a "marketing master" who "left a mark on the flag" because "Many Latinos and other people he scapegoated still recoil upon seeing it." She even claimed the American flag "has become a stand-in for the GOP’s white nationalist agenda." 

"The hopeful sense in November of 2020 that we’d reclaimed the flag has died as the GOP deals blow after blow to hard-won equal rights, including women’s right to bodily autonomy," she continued. 

"How can we celebrate Independence Day, with its flags and belligerent displays of patriotism, when so many in our communities feel terrorized by such rituals?" she asked. 

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Guerrero described buying flag merchandise in an attempt to "rediscover my former enthusiasm for the flag:" "The stuff looked clownish and sinister, like the authoritarian himself. I picked up the LED flag glasses and put them on. Stepped in front of the mirror. Disturbed, I took them off." 

"How had Trump come to live inside this symbol I once believed represented me?" she asked.

Guerrero recalled the time period after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the wave of patriotism after. She argued former President George W. Bush weaponized that patriotism "as a pretext for war against innocent Muslims." She also blamed the U.S. for "Mexicans dying at our militarized border." 

"Then a Mexican-hating, Muslim-barring bully became president and raised a mob to attack the Capitol after he lost four years later. His Supreme Court paved a path to Gilead," she wrote. 

U.S. Marines of the 28th Regiment, 5th Division, raise the American flag atop Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima, on Feb. 23, 1945. Strategically located only 660 miles from Tokyo, the Pacific island became the site of one of the bloodiest, most famous battles of World War II against Japan.  (AP Photo/Joe Rosenthal) (AP1945)

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"After all these horrors, how could the flag mean the same as it had before?" she asked.

Guerrero wrote that she "found herself agreeing" with an "activist" who said "some things need to be burned" with regard to the American flag. 

Then she recalled immigrant rights marches in 2006 where Latinos carried American flags, reveling in the thought that "[i]t must have been nightmarish to the nativists."

"The U.S. flag should not belong to the fascists, who fail to grasp our strength. The flag should belong to the people carrying the boulder of this country on their backs," she wrote. They are the ones who "have every right to take back the flag." 

(iStock)

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Guerrero's piece follows a trend set by many in the media to bash the United States during Independence Day celebrations.