Last week, Donald Trump reiterated a proposal he had also suggested in late July, in response to the anti-Israel protests going on at that time. Trump called for a minimum one-year jail sentence for anyone convicted of willfully burning the American flag.

Such a sentence would be patently unconstitutional, especially in light of the Supreme Court’s 1989 ruling that burning an American flag constitutes an expression of free speech and is therefore protected by the First Amendment.

Trump even acknowledged the constitutionality of such acts, saying that some sort of congressional action would be necessary to implement a penalty.

I have for some time had mixed feelings about those who burn or otherwise desecrate Old Glory. I certainly concur with our Founders’ view that the First Amendment protects even (or perhaps especially) unpopular speech and that an act such as burning or desecrating the flag may be construed as a statement and is therefore entitled to protection.

Image: X screen grab.

However, I also feel that the flag is not a symbol of the government of the U.S., and so burning it or desecrating it is not a valid criticism of the government. Au contraire, the flag is the symbol of the Nation. And as such, burning or otherwise desecrating the flag is an overt slap in the face to one’s neighbors and all fellow Americans. It’s a visceral insult and attack, and it’s understandable that it elicits, from many, a visceral reaction.

When I think of someone deliberately and contemptuously desecrating the flag, I can’t help but think of William Ayers, the unrepentant America-hater who was once pictured on a magazine cover trampling on Old Glory.

Ayers is a child of privilege who grew up to become a co-founder of the radical Weathermen (later called The Weather Underground). The name came from a line from Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues”:  “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” Whether or not you like Bob Dylan, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t hate America.

Ayers is not only responsible for advancing the political career of his old Chicago neighbor, Barack Obama, but has, for all intents and purposes, been proven (based on some truly impressive literary forensics conducted by Jack Cashill and documented in his book Deconstructing Obama) to have been the actual author of Obama’s Dreams from My Father.

Ayers was and remains exceedingly proud to have been photographed trampling on the American flag, as proud as he remains of the bombings committed by the Weathermen.

I don’t think Ayers or his America-hating ilk should be prosecuted or jailed for desecrating the flag. But neither do I think there should be any prosecution or jail sentence for any patriotic American citizen or group of citizens who might be spontaneously “triggered” into viscerally and physically reacting to such provocation on the flag burner’s part.

It would not bother me one little bit if that were to happen each and every time someone decides to set an American flag on fire or otherwise desecrate it in public. And such a reaction, I believe, should also be construed as a valid expression of one’s constitutionally protected right to free speech.

(And should such a reaction be accompanied by chants of “USA! USA!,” such as are frequently heard at Trump rallies, that’d be OK by me also.)

All this brings up a concept that I never tire of discussing because so few of my fellow Americans seem to grasp it anymore (and it’s certainly not being taught as it was when I was in school).

Our Founders, in their wisdom and in their reverence, believed that our basic rights, like freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of religion, the right to privacy and self-defense etc., are not “granted” by the government but, instead, are unalienable rights that emanate from God. Our Constitution merely pledges to protect such rights.

The Left believes otherwise, and that is one reason why Leftists work so hard at belittling God and His believers. Without God, there is no power higher than the government itself. If there is nothing more powerful than the government, then whatever rights we have do, indeed, emanate from the government.

And it follows that if the government can grant us such rights, it can just as easily take them away. Even atheists benefit from the concept that our basic rights are God-given. I have written about this on several occasions (e.g., here).