Knock, Knock.
No, this isn’t a joke. Nor is it a story about a joke.
Remember growing up, you had a tree house in the backyard where your secret club members or group of friends met. Perhaps it was a secluded area in the woods or someone’s basement. Somewhere that only you and they knew about.
And when anyone would arrive, they wouldn’t just barge in. They would give the pre-arranged “secret code”. A knock. Another knock. A sign to those already there that someone they recognized wanted to join them.
Was it because the entryway was secured? Because there was an impenetrable door to be opened? Of course not. It was because they were asking permission to join those already there and that he / she would not enter unless they were told to do so. It became a tradition. A symbol of being a member of the club or group.
After the World Trade Center horror, Americans and their friends started their own club, meeting together to help each other through the grief. It wasn’t in a tree house or in the woods or in someone’s basement. In fact, there became so many members we couldn’t meet together at all. Now, the only way you can tell who is a member of the group is because of a small flag pin worn on their lapel or blouse.
Does the fact that Barack Obama refuses, for the most part, to wear a flag pin in his lapel mean he is less “patriotic” than the rest of us? I don’t believe so.
But as he seeks to lead our club, he tells the members that the “secret code”, the flag pin, is not important. It’s not germane to his ability to lead. Is he right? In your head, you agree.
However, when the prospective leader of the club is reluctant to give the “secret code”, the knock, knock, can it really be a surprise when the members become apprehensive and standoffish? Do the members want a leader who doesn’t respect their traditions, their symbolisms? In your heart, you’re not so sure.
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35 Responses to “Knock, Knock.”
[...] Political Buzz wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptKnock, Knock. May 20th, 2008 by GARY A. BUTTS No, this isn’t a joke. Nor is it a story about a joke. Remember growing up, you had a tree house in the backyard where your secret club members or group of friends met. Perhaps it was a secluded area in the woods or someone’s basement. Somewhere that only you and they knew about. And when anyone would arrive, they wouldn’t just barge in. They would give the pre-arranged “secret code”. A knock. Another knock. A sign to those already there that [...]
You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding.
What club? Who formed the club? Why does the club have to be so secretive? I thought campaigns were conducted in the open — no “secret codes” or signals required — and people voted their conscience in the privacy of the voting booth.
John McCain doesn't wear a flag pin. Should you pout like a child over his failure to display the “secret code” as well?
Many, many, MANY Americans don't wear that pin. Should they be pointed at and whispered about by their neighbors as they arrive at the polls?
This has to be the single most juvenile and stupid thing I've read during this campaign from someone who wasn't frothing at the mouth.
Actually, most Americans aren't in that club, because most Americans don't wear flag lapel pins. A flag lapel pin isn't a tradition. Free speech is a tradition. 2nd Amendment rights and their protection is a tradition. Our constitution, our laws, our holidays, those are traditions.
You're a smear-merchant, that's your tradition.
Flag lapel pins? A club? Honestly? Let's forget that Obama has worn the pin sometimes and other times not, and let's forget that the reason he didn't wear it is that it's become a replacement for patriotism as opposed to a symbol for it; a crutch as you will.
Let's focus on the fact that you just used 9/11 and the thousands that died for the purpose of a political attack about flag lapel pins.
Maybe you should figure out how you're going to live with that.
You know how you could tell the members of that club, sugar? By being in America and looking around you, cause we're all members of that club, because we're all Americans, and if you think we need a flag lapel pin to be entitled to feel greif or care about our brothers or sisters that died on September 11th or that died in Iraq or that come home and die because no one looks out for them, or that die in our streets, then you don't understand the concept of a nation, of a citizenry. You don't tell the members of the club by their lapel pin. You tell it by the fact that you're in this country, and so are they.
Americans, that's who felt it.
Seriously, this is way, way below the standards of the moderate voice, and I think this is probably one of the worst things I have ever read. I normally wouldn't care to chastise a columnist on the Voice, but this is ridiculous.
What? You look at the people that don't wear a pin and go 'oh, you must not care about America?' What are you trying to say? What are you trying to accomplish? This is disgusting.
You literally followed all the rules of a terrible smear: you used a folksy story to open, you proposed that these feelings weren't your own, but that you sympathize, and you just spread it, on no inherent logic, casting the idea that all the people, and only the people that wear flag lapel pins are identifiable as loving their country. Good job throwing any credibility you have away.
Many patriotic Americans, myself included, don't even own a flag pin, a flag, a flag decal, a flag bumper sticker, a red, pink, yellow, blue, black or red white and blue ribbon. Could we possibly find a stupider litmus test issue? Come on!
Aha! I knew there was a reason why the last line of this incredibly stupid post sounded familiar.
In your heart you know he’s right – Barry Goldwater, 1964 presidential campaign
So was that a deliberate homage, or was it sheer coincidence?
Let me put this another way.
Suppose a candidate was trying to win the votes of bowlers. Would it be a smart move to go to a bowling alley and tell everyone bowling was stupid, inane and not even a sport?
The point of this commentary is that when Barack Obama tells Americans that wearing a flag pin, for whatever reason, is not important, it should not be a surprise that he gets a lot of pushback from those who believe it is. Now, instead of focusing on the important issues of the day, the debate is focused elsewhere.
The use of the word “club” is a metaphor for those people wearing a flag pin. Nowhere is it suggested that people should, or should not, wear one. That wasn’t the purpose of this writing.
The point of this commentary is that when Barack Obama tells Americans that wearing a flag pin, for whatever reason, is not important, it should not be a surprise that he gets a lot of pushback from those who believe it is.
If that's all he'd said, then I'd think the pushback was silly (and I actually thought that most of the commenters had misunderstood you until you clarified- I thought your piece was actually making fun of the people who had the 'flag pin club'.)
The reason Obama got so much flak (and the reason I think it was somewhat justified, though a regrettable distraction) is that he used the opportunity of the question about his flag pin to weigh in on the side of the fringe left and make a statement about the hypocrisy of people who wear flag pins. He didn't just respond to the question in a normal way with a shrug of the shoulders and a statement like “Flag pins are an outward display of patriotism worn by a lot of people, including myself at times, but I don't think anyone wants to say that anyone who appears in public without one is unpatriotic,” he instead chose to make a statement about how he had carefully considered it and decided not to wear one, because he'd seen other people who wore it acting in a way that he felt was unpatriotic.
Gary,
Sorry I call Bullsh** on your assumption of those in the club wearing a flag pin.
“After the World Trade Center horror, Americans and their friends started their own club, meeting together to help each other through the grief. It wasn’t in a tree house or in the woods or in someone’s basement. In fact, there became so many members we couldn’t meet together at all. Now, the only way you can tell who is a member of the group is because of a small flag pin worn on their lapel or blouse.”
Just Americans? After 9-11 the World was wearing US flag pins.
Then Bush willy-nilly played pin the tail on Saddam, and we fell from grace.
As a first hand witness/escapee/survivor- I'm offended at the posers who put on a show. A flag pin does not a patriot make, especially since most of those were made in CHINA. My pin was made by a little Korean woman on Chambers street- I bought it a few weeks after when I went to try and get my belongings I left behind in the mad run to get out of the building. ( no such luck, building was off-limits) As I stood there, behind the barricade talking to some police officers and wondering, as I had purchased a face mask and the smell was giving me a headache ) why they weren't also. To this day I still hope that they didn't come down with some respiratory disease for doing their jobs while appointed hacks like Whitman said it was “safe”. All you had to do was walk a few blocks north and the smell would give you a migraine. I am glad my city came back, I am glad , yet haunted , you can take the PATH to Jersey. People and business re-grew south of Houston and kids play once again in Battery Park. That is my pride in this country, that is my flag pin. Not some trumped up puppet show war .
'Suppose a candidate was trying to win the votes of bowlers.'
But he's not. He's not trying to win factions. He's trying to win Americans, and most Americans don't wear flag lapel pins, and a large amount of those that do are partaking in empty gestures.
It's a false analogy and you should get nothing but flack for it.
Also, he said wearing the flag lapel was too often becoming a replacement for patriotism.
What is your post about? About Obama trying to win the flag lapel pin crowd? Who are they? Who are these people? I am an American, and I haven't seen one single person actually wearing a flag lapel pin that wasn't a politician or a businessman, so who are you talking about?
This post of yours does nothing but imply that the only true Americans are the ones that wear flag lapel pins, and that the only criticism of Obama on flag lapels is coming from people who actually wear them, neither of which are true.
It's really the most misguided thing I've seen on here so far.
What good does your post do? What truth does it tell?
“After the World Trade Center horror, Americans and their friends started their own club, meeting together to help each other through the grief.”
Not some Americans wore flag lapel pins. AMERICANS and their friends…
You are writing as though 90 percent of this country decided to all wear flag lapel pins when the opposite is more or less true.
It's a lie. It serves to spread vindictive bile about an issue which is really about character defamation and about attacking patriotism which means all this post can acheive is a smear-attack on Obama.
There's no substantive claim in there; no new look at the issue. It is a repeat of a disgusting attack delivered without accountability or sense.
Look, I'm really sorry if you intended it another way, but it comes off all wrong. It comes off like a repeat of a cheap political attack and it comes off as giving ownership of the country exclusively to those that wear flag lapel pins.
I think, at heart, it was just a misguided post that tried to say something that maybe isn't worth saying, or puts you into a place where you're dealing to far with the wrong to ever realistically be in the right.
I don't mean to pile on here, but I read that and it didn't feel right at all, and I'm sorry if I over-reacted, or if what I took wasn't your intent.
Look, I'm really sorry if you intended it another way, but it comes off all wrong. It comes off like a repeat of a cheap political attack and it comes off as giving ownership of the country exclusively to those that wear flag lapel pins.
I think, at heart, it was just a misguided post that tried to say something that maybe isn't worth saying, or puts you into a place where you're dealing to far with the wrong to ever realistically be in the right.
I don't mean to pile on here, but I read that and it didn't feel right at all, and I'm sorry if I over-reacted, or if what I took wasn't your intent.
OK, guess you've gotten as much flak on this as you need, Gary, but the flag-pin “issue” like flag burning amendments, IS hypocrisy. Trashing a principle for the sake of a symbol of the principle is quite dangerous, and we condemn it in other nations.
CS, you're right, that would have been a more artful way to defuse without dividing. But to me, Obama was right in a way. The issue arose precisely because someone used the symbol of the UNITED states to divide, not unite. Patriotism and religion are so often used to manipulate, and the post-9/11 flag-pin/don't question war/with us or against us/freedom-fries/”old Europe”/”Defeatocrat” hyperbole was a horrible squandering of national and international unity that could have inspired us, rather than being used to divide and conquer.
OK, guess you've gotten as much flak on this as you need, Gary, but the flag-pin “issue” like flag burning amendments, IS hypocrisy. Trashing a principle for the sake of a symbol of the principle is quite dangerous, and we condemn it in other nations.
CS, you're right, that would have been a more artful way to defuse without dividing. But to me, Obama was right in a way. The issue arose precisely because someone used the symbol of the UNITED states to divide, not unite. Patriotism and religion are so often used to manipulate, and the post-9/11 flag-pin/don't question war/with us or against us/freedom-fries/”old Europe”/”Defeatocrat” hyperbole was a horrible squandering of national and international unity that could have inspired us, rather than being used to divide and conquer.
The issue arose precisely because someone used the symbol of the UNITED states to divide, not unite.
But he then used it to be divisive in return. Most people who are into the symbols aren't trying to claim that they're better than anyone else, they just like the public expression that's involved. By making it into more of an issue than it really was, he too was using the symbol in a divisive way. He was just showing the other side of the same coin, IMO.
The issue arose precisely because someone used the symbol of the UNITED states to divide, not unite.
But he then used it to be divisive in return. Most people who are into the symbols aren't trying to claim that they're better than anyone else, they just like the public expression that's involved. By making it into more of an issue than it really was, he too was using the symbol in a divisive way. He was just showing the other side of the same coin, IMO.
And Obama never said or implied he flatly refuses to wear flag pins, he just doesn't wear them all the time. You seriously expect me to question the man's patriotism because he doesn't wear one for every photo op? Honestly, its pretty stupid and shallow to make that assumption. I would like to renew my ananlogy to the flair used in the movie Office Space, and the characters who placed value on them.
That this is still an issue to some shows me that there is little concrete in the way of ammo to use on Obama. Anyone who would change their vote away from him over THIS, as opposed to say, actual ability to make decisions regarding the future of this nation, I would never trust with any serious decisions.
And Obama never said or implied he flatly refuses to wear flag pins, he just doesn't wear them all the time. You seriously expect me to question the man's patriotism because he doesn't wear one for every photo op? Honestly, its pretty stupid and shallow to make that assumption. I would like to renew my ananlogy to the flair used in the movie Office Space, and the characters who placed value on them.
That this is still an issue to some shows me that there is little concrete in the way of ammo to use on Obama. Anyone who would change their vote away from him over THIS, as opposed to say, actual ability to make decisions regarding the future of this nation, I would never trust with any serious decisions.
I agree with you, Slamfu, on the relative seriousness of this as an issue, but you are wrong about what Obama said or didn't say and the main reason I feel it's important to clear that up is that it ends up reflecting badly on his critics if you misunderstand what the flap was all about.
So, here you go, here's the quote from Obama when a reporter questioned him about the lack of pinnage:
Now, how anyone can look at that and not see that he was using the issue to make a political attack on his opponents- especially if the same someone thinks that Bush's statements about appeasement HAD to have been a vieled attack on Obama, is beyond me. Like I said, if it's wrong to make the wearing of a flag pin into a litmus test, then it's also wrong to say that those who wore them were failing a different kind of test.
I agree with you, Slamfu, on the relative seriousness of this as an issue, but you are wrong about what Obama said or didn't say and the main reason I feel it's important to clear that up is that it ends up reflecting badly on his critics if you misunderstand what the flap was all about.
So, here you go, here's the quote from Obama when a reporter questioned him about the lack of pinnage:
Now, how anyone can look at that and not see that he was using the issue to make a political attack on his opponents- especially if the same someone thinks that Bush's statements about appeasement HAD to have been a vieled attack on Obama, is beyond me. Like I said, if it's wrong to make the wearing of a flag pin into a litmus test, then it's also wrong to say that those who wore them were failing a different kind of test.
Ok good point, I hadn't seen that quote, and had heard a different one. He did say he wouldn't wear a pin.
But I do disagree that its not a sort of litmus test. Honestly to write off someone as not being patriotic for simply not wearing a pin, or rather assume that they are patriotic because they do, is watering down the idea of patriotism to an insulting degree.
I have trouble respecting the opinion of someone who can place that much emphasis on something so superficial. Especially in the times of this administration which so often uses empty rhetoric as a substitute for progress. That keeps telling us things are running smoothly as the wheels come off the wagon. These are the people that are swayed into ignoring facts because they are being told what they want to hear.
Ok good point, I hadn't seen that quote, and had heard a different one. He did say he wouldn't wear a pin.
But I do disagree that its not a sort of litmus test. Honestly to write off someone as not being patriotic for simply not wearing a pin, or rather assume that they are patriotic because they do, is watering down the idea of patriotism to an insulting degree.
I have trouble respecting the opinion of someone who can place that much emphasis on something so superficial. Especially in the times of this administration which so often uses empty rhetoric as a substitute for progress. That keeps telling us things are running smoothly as the wheels come off the wagon. These are the people that are swayed into ignoring facts because they are being told what they want to hear.
[...] Knock, Knock. [via Zemanta] [...]
I think this post and the comments are a good reflection of why these issues dominate political coverage instead of things that most of us think are actually more important. If someone were to do an intelligent post about the Obama versus Clinton health care plan, I wouldn't have all that much to add as I neither work in health care nor am I an economist. I just don't know. Similarly, how many of us actually have an informed opinion about the best way to use diplomacy and at what level? Few. And yet we all have very quick and strong opinions about flag pins and patriotism. We're all truly just as qualified as the next person to talk about this.
So we do.
I think this post and the comments are a good reflection of why these issues dominate political coverage instead of things that most of us think are actually more important. If someone were to do an intelligent post about the Obama versus Clinton health care plan, I wouldn't have all that much to add as I neither work in health care nor am I an economist. I just don't know. Similarly, how many of us actually have an informed opinion about the best way to use diplomacy and at what level? Few. And yet we all have very quick and strong opinions about flag pins and patriotism. We're all truly just as qualified as the next person to talk about this.
So we do.
It also doesn't work as a litmus test since the other candidates aren't wearing a pin either (though I bet McCain will at the presidential debates, just to raise the issue).
It also doesn't work as a litmus test since the other candidates aren't wearing a pin either (though I bet McCain will at the presidential debates, just to raise the issue).
Why are the lefties on here (beginning with the very start of this thread) making more of this gimmick than anything Shaun Hannity or others have done in the past less loudly on the right?
Too bad, because if you wanted some academic and intellectual stimulation (albeit less boring than the current-campaign frothing on the Dem side) you might have speculated how many people avoid the Republican Party because it still has that affluent-to-wealthy-white-male, exclusive-club character that turns others off.
Why are the lefties on here (beginning with the very start of this thread) making more of this gimmick than anything Shaun Hannity or others have done in the past less loudly on the right?
Too bad, because if you wanted some academic and intellectual stimulation (albeit less boring than the current-campaign frothing on the Dem side) you might have speculated how many people avoid the Republican Party because it still has that affluent-to-wealthy-white-male, exclusive-club character that turns others off.
“the flag-pin “issue” like flag burning amendments, IS hypocrisy”
Not quite. It's something else. With both, it's idolatry.
(Jettison any excessive emotion and other baggage with your initial reaction when encountering that word, “idolatry,” and just look at in a “clinical,” intellectually mature and detached, sense.)
“the flag-pin “issue” like flag burning amendments, IS hypocrisy”
Not quite. It's something else. With both, it's idolatry.
(Jettison any excessive emotion and other baggage with your initial reaction when encountering that word, “idolatry,” and just look at in a “clinical,” intellectually mature and detached, sense.)
“After the World Trade Center horror, Americans and their friends started their own club, meeting together to help each other through the grief.”
No, we didn't. Though we did in large numbers (not the mere ten per cent implied wrongly by someone else) do something publicly observed. No, it wasn't to start wearing lapel pins. That was done in the media (and US flags on uniforms were worn by pro athletes and officials). No, what we did in large numbers was flying and otherwise displaying the flag (such as on freeway overpasses).
There hasn't been the same neurosis about the flag display as with the lapel pins in the media, but the flag display was far more widespread and continues in a low-key manner (note) to this day.
“After the World Trade Center horror, Americans and their friends started their own club, meeting together to help each other through the grief.”
No, we didn't. Though we did in large numbers (not the mere ten per cent implied wrongly by someone else) do something publicly observed. No, it wasn't to start wearing lapel pins. That was done in the media (and US flags on uniforms were worn by pro athletes and officials). No, what we did in large numbers was flying and otherwise displaying the flag (such as on freeway overpasses).
There hasn't been the same neurosis about the flag display as with the lapel pins in the media, but the flag display was far more widespread and continues in a low-key manner (note) to this day.
I couldn't care less about flag pins. I do find it offensive when I see falgs on the bottom of dirty ashtrays, etc. But, that's just me. ,
What i don't like is the way this whole issue, like so many others, is being turned on it's head.
1. Obama is criticized
2. Obama has to respond in a prescribed way( and the prescribing is done by those who criticize. him) or he gets criticized a second time.
Is he allowed to feel angry, ever? Or is the appropriate dose of anger also doled out by those who cause it?
Granted, there is always a 'better', i.e. more pragmatic way to respond to provocation, especially in retrospect. But, come on, this is like blaming someone for yelling 'ouch' in an inappropriately loud voice after being hit with a baseball bat.
Then, too, wouldn't the same people who criticize his reaction portray him as being weak because he didn't speak up for himself?
What happened to the admiration for appearing strong?
I couldn't care less about flag pins. I do find it offensive when I see falgs on the bottom of dirty ashtrays, etc. But, that's just me. ,
What i don't like is the way this whole issue, like so many others, is being turned on it's head.
1. Obama is criticized
2. Obama has to respond in a prescribed way( and the prescribing is done by those who criticize. him) or he gets criticized a second time.
Is he allowed to feel angry, ever? Or is the appropriate dose of anger also doled out by those who cause it?
Granted, there is always a 'better', i.e. more pragmatic way to respond to provocation, especially in retrospect. But, come on, this is like blaming someone for yelling 'ouch' in an inappropriately loud voice after being hit with a baseball bat.
Then, too, wouldn't the same people who criticize his reaction portray him as being weak because he didn't speak up for himself?
What happened to the admiration for appearing strong?