On Flag Appropriation
Disavow or Take Back, that is the Dilemma
The Chronicle reports that the Recreation and Parks Department quietly replaced the Pine Tree Flag, a historical ensign associated with the American Revolution, with the national flag at Civic Center Plaza over Memorial Day weekend. The ensign had been flown there as part of an ensemble of historical flags since 1964.
According to reporter Rachel Swan, the flag was taken down due to recent controversies involving the use of the flag by political movements associated with right-wing revanchism. These controversies include its use at the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol Building in Washington and its recent display by conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on his family property.
The Pine Tree Flag is historically associated with early naval formations of the Continental Army. Christian Nationalist movements have appropriated the flag in recent years because it features the motto “An Appeal to Heaven,” coined by the English philosopher John Locke to describe the grounds justifying popular revolution. (It must be noted here that Locke was an early advocate of religious tolerance in civil society.) A version of the flag continues to be considered a state flag of Massachusetts, associated with its former Naval Militia.
The ensign is not the only one associated with early United States history appropriated by right-wing revanchists in recent years. The Gadsden Flag, based in part on the “Join or Die” meme coined by Benjamin Franklin and long used as a political symbol by the gun rights movement, has recently seen more use by the broader revanchist movement energized by Donald Trump's presidency and was widely used by insurrectionists during the Jan. 6 attack.
[Update: As it turns out, the Gadsden flag is also flown at the Civic Center Pavillion, and the city is now mulling taking it down as well, per the Los Angeles Times. ]
The Gadsden Flag influenced the design of a popular variation of the Continental Navy jack featuring its rattlesnake and “Don’t Tread on Me” motto. This jack was adopted as the US Navy’s official jack for the duration of the nation’s Bicentennial celebration in 1976 and some other commemorative uses, and from 2002 after the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks.
The Navy's use of the jack, including as a uniform patch, is heavily associated with the era of the Global War on Terror. The service took great pains to disassociate its contemporary use from that of the Gadsden Flag. The Navy returned to the use of its traditional Union Jack in 2019.
Even the “Betsy Ross Flag,” a historical flag that was one of many designs offered as an early United States flag and heavily featured in popular media, has been appropriated by revanchist groups.
San Francisco has had more than its share of incidents involving problematic flags.
In the years leading up to the Second World War, the Nazi regime in Germany waged a significant information campaign to woo America, along with parallel hybrid warfare to cow the nation into inaction, as documented in Rachel Maddow’s Prequel. Nazi and German-American Bund rallies were occasionally held in major cities throughout the country in the mid-thirties, with less controversy than you might think.
Public sentiment would change significantly in only a few years. By the beginning of 1941, San Franciscans cheered on Navy sailors as they tore the swastika flag down in front of the German consulate.
The swastika is also an appropriated symbol that had a much more benign meaning before its embrace by proto-Nazi groups. We might want to take back our national symbols before they become irrecoverable.
Thanks Mike !!