CHICAGO — President this week, though mainstream Democrats — including Harris earlier in the campaign — have typically condemned flag-burning.
Much of the schedule at the Democratic National Convention seems designed to combat the perception that Democrats and the flag-burning protesters could ever be on the same page. Party officials eagerly shared images contrasting the “USA” signs handed out to convention delegates on Monday night to the “Mass Deportation Now!” signs handed out at the Republican National Convention last month.
On Wednesday, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) led the delegates in a chant of “I believe in America!” as he crafted an inclusive image of the country. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) pitched a border safety bill he helped negotiate while also portraying accepting immigration as an essential part of the American character. Republicans Geoff Duncan and Olivia Troye portrayed voting for Harris as a patriotic requirement.
But the peak moment of liberal patriotism may have been when Oprah Winfrey generated thunderous “U! S! A!” after saying that electing a daughter of immigrants to the presidency would be “the best of America.”
Advertisement
But if the patriotism pitch from Harris and other Democrats is too cosmopolitan for your tastes, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the party’s vice presidential nominee, presented a distinctly provincial vision of loving your country in his acceptance speech when he recalled growing up in a Nebraska town with a population in the hundreds.
“I’ll tell you what: Growing up in a small town like that, you learn to take care of each other,” he said. “That family down the road — they may not think like you do, they may not pray like you do, they may not love like you do, but they’re your neighbors. And you look out for them, and they look out for you. Everybody belongs, and everybody has a responsibility to contribute.”
Democrats, meanwhile, are eating it up, thrilled they are finally getting a chance to counter what they see as Trump’s “bastardization” of patriotism, as Maryland Gov. Wes Moore put it.
“We have not just an appetite, but an eagerness to push back,” Moore, a former Army officer who fought in Afghanistan, told HuffPost. “I love this flag so much that I was willing to put my life on the line to protect it. And so I just refused to allow someone who is going to wrap themselves in the flag on the idea that the definition of patriotism means telling people who belongs and who does not belong in the American mosaic.”
On Wednesday afternoon, I spoke to Virginia House of Delegates Speaker Don Scott, who served seven years in prison in his 20s on a federal drug charge before becoming successful in law and business after getting out. When I asked him about liberal patriotism, his response was more than a bit enthusiastic.
Advertisement
“Where else but America can a person like me, raised by a single mom with six kids, who went to federal prison, came out, worked my ass off, took the Virginia Bar 20 years after law school, passed it, became a partner in a large law firm, run for office, win and then freaking become speaker of the House?” Scott asked.
“Hell yeah, I love America,” he said. “I’d be a fool not to.”
