Uh oh: Trump wants flag burners jailed, stripped of citizenship

It's a bad idea. It's also an unconstitutional idea. Finally, it's an impossible idea. Maybe that's why Trump tweeted it. Given his cabinet choices and his early policy priorities, Trump is shaping up like a guy who governs as a fairly mainstream conservative but thunders rhetorically like the populist who proved everyone wrong and won the presidency. No, you can't jail flag-burners. But if you'd like to tweet that you wish you could, you're welcome to that:

Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag - if they do, there must be consequences - perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 29, 2016

I know I am far from alone among conservatives who believe that flag-burning, while highly obnoxious, is and must be a protected form of speech. I'm probably a bit more isolated in the sense that I don't really care that much if some America-hater chooses to desecrate it as a symbol. I detest the sentiment it expresses - that America and all it stands for are worthy of contempt - and I think the people who offer that expression are complete jerks. But I've never understood the idea that military people and veterans are somehow having their hearts broken because some idiot takes a cloth representation of the stars and stripes and sets it ablaze. You've survived combat and possibly physical maiming. You didn't do it for the symbol. You did it for what the symbol represents. Once some malcontent decides to turn the flag into an inferno, as far as I'm concerned it ceases at that moment to represent anything other than that person's own issues. Who cares about him? America is no more or less great because some loser set a fire. Anyway, Trump surely knows there isn't going to be any law banning flag-burning or setting a punishment for same. Meanwhile, the left is predictably apoplectic because the president-elect would dare to make a proposal that butts up against the First Amendment. I'll be sure to let all the Christian bakeries know that the left once again gives a crap about the First Amendment. I'm sure they'll consider that to be very exciting news.

Dan Calabrese——Bio and Archives

Dan Calabrese’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain

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