The ones who hoist the “Don’t tread on me” Gadsden flag originally popularized during the Revolutionary War seem to be the ones most eager to tread on everyone else.
The ones today who most loudly give lip service to “LIBERTY” and warn that “Democrats are coming for your freedoms” while wrapping themselves in their flags — Stars and Stripes, Gadsden, KKKonfederate and even Nazi swastika flags at Trump rallies and while trying to overthrow elections — are the ones who want to take away liberty and freedom from everyone else.
They are the ones trying to micromanage every aspect of everyone else’s private lives, including private relationships (dictate who you can or can’t marry or even what behavior is allowed behind closed doors), private medical choices (reproductive choices such as abortion or contraception, medical or recreational marijuana, end of life choices, stem cell therapies, gender-identity care), tell us what books we or our children can have access to, or try to force PRIVATE religion into PUBLIC policy and religious rituals into public meetings or subsidize it with special tax advantages (socialized religion).
As the specter of Nazism in Germany and Fascism in Italy and Spain rose over Europe, Sinclair Lewis famously warned in 1935: “When fascism comes to America it will be carrying the Bible and wrapped in the flag.”
The ones who hoist the “Don’t tread on me” Gadsden flag originally popularized during the Revolutionary War seem to be the ones most eager to tread on everyone else.
The ones today who most loudly give lip service to “LIBERTY” and warn that “Democrats are coming for your freedoms” while wrapping themselves in their flags — Stars and Stripes, Gadsden, KKKonfederate and even Nazi swastika flags at Trump rallies and while trying to overthrow elections — are the ones who want to take away liberty and freedom from everyone else.
They are the ones trying to micromanage every aspect of everyone else’s private lives, including private relationships (dictate who you can or can’t marry or even what behavior is allowed behind closed doors), private medical choices (reproductive choices such as abortion or contraception, medical or recreational marijuana, end of life choices, stem cell therapies, gender-identity care), tell us what books we or our children can have access to, or try to force PRIVATE religion into PUBLIC policy and religious rituals into public meetings or subsidize it with special tax advantages (socialized religion).
As the specter of Nazism in Germany and Fascism in Italy and Spain rose over Europe, Sinclair Lewis famously warned in 1935: “When fascism comes to America it will be carrying the Bible and wrapped in the flag.”
How right — how sadly prophetic — he was.