A Right to Burn the American Flag? You Bet There Is!

Donald Trump said the following on Twitter: “Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag – if they do, there must be consequences – perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!”

Is he right? Not even close.

Flags, as such, have no rights. In a free society, jails exist to punish those who initiate force or fraud against others.

When you burn a flag — even the American flag — you’re making a statement. So long as your statements do not involve a violation of another’s property rights or right to life, you’re in the clear.

It’s another example of entitlement. “I’m entitled to live in a country where other people don’t deface my flag.” No, you’re not. The very fact the government does not prosecute people for defacing that flag proves you’re living in a free country. The very reason for cherishing that flag, at least so long as it stands for individual rights and freedom, is the very same reason you’re supportive of another’s right to denigrate or burn that flag.

The United States, as we all know, is no longer a fully free country. It’s a mixture of freedom and controls, of individual rights such as the First and Second Amendments, as well as government-imposed obligations in the form of entitlement/welfare programs, high levels of progressive taxation, and all the rest.

To the extent that the American flag still rationally and objectively stands for what it originally did — political liberty — you’d presumably want to cherish that flag, unless you’re a collectivist (Nazi, Communist, social democrat, etc.). Something would have to be deeply wrong with you to want to deface a symbol of individual rights and freedom. Of course, that only applies to the extent the country in question still upholds those rights.

Trump’s deeply mistaken comments arose in the context of students reportedly burning a flag at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., after his election victory. There’s nothing wrong with students doing this. Almost certainly, there’s plenty wrong with their reasons, but it should not be illegal.

If these students are like most Trump opponents, they’re perfectly happy with the two terms of President Obama. President Obama redistributed wealth, abused executive orders to override Congress and existing law, nationalized medicine, threatened to undermine the right to bear arms, and used the IRS and other government agencies to chill freedom of speech.

Anyone who burns the flag in defense of soft dictators like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton has no credibility whatsoever. But it’s still their right to do so.