The MAGA-GOP is the Anti-American Party 

I spent my early years on the history-drenched eastern seaboard of our country, learning about and reviewing the legends, eye-witness accounts and stories that surrounded America’s beginnings. I became intimately familiar with the significant locations, stories and heroes that were involved in our nation’s birth.

I visited Mt. Vernon with my family and waded in the Delaware River near the spot where a brave Gen. Washington—despite his own bone spurs—led an assault across its ice-packed depths. I saw the ominous crack in the Liberty Bell on Philly’s commons, imagining how it rang in the American Dream of independence. I read the rousing words of Thomas Paine, encouraging his fellow colonists, with his book Common Sense, to support the cause of freedom. And I walked through the colonnades of America’s Hall of Fame, where bronze busts of America’s most notables basked in an easy breeze that wafted from the Harlem River below.

I was impressed and inspired by the significant sites of the Revolutionary War, heard the monumental resolution of the first Continental Congress and the ringing hooves of Paul Revere’s horse as he summoned his comrades to arms. I imagined how it would have been to be there with the other patriots, and grew an appreciation for the great tragedy and loss that had forged America’s independent beginnings.

I understood the meaning of patriotism. And each time I saw our flag waving in the breeze, a warm flush and goosebumps reminded me: Ours was the greatest country in the world, a light to the huddled, impoverished masses and a dream that welcomed all comers.

Traditionally, Americans en masse have flown their nation’s flag on major holidays. Along with parades, partying, fireworks and happy boozing, U.S. flags have always been plentiful on the Fourth of July, Flag Day and Veterans’ Day. Tradition inspired whole neighborhoods to line their streets with flags; children pledged allegiance in our country’s classrooms; and people stood tall and proud at the sight of Betsy Ross’s hand-sewn contribution to the birth of our nation.

As the most powerful democracy in the world, Americans certainly had a right to be proud. Their Founding Fathers had created a system designed to be guided by the voice of the people—one whose system of checks and balances could ensure that no one person could appoint themselves ruler; one that ensured that laws would be fairly enforced with equity and justice for all; and one which would be the sacred caretaker of its citizens’ inalienable rights.

Of course, that was all well and good. And yet, when I walk my dog around my neighborhood and the surrounding ones, I find that the sight of well-placed flags, accompanied by an occasional, yellow “Don’t Tread on Me” banner or the so-called thin blue line flag makes me just a bit nauseous. Though each fabric symbol, by itself, is a reminder of our loyalty and love for our country, I understand that many of these displays are in support of values that are not at all American.

This is about how one man, with a thoroughly un-American organization and goal, can kidnap, and hold for ransom emblems of things Americans hold dear.

The vulnerability had always been there, but Donald Trump got the ball of anti-Americanism rolling, passing it off as a new kind of patriotism—a patriotism bent on destroying the value of the American voters’ voice and derailing the whole democratic process. Suddenly there were American flags everywhere. They stood in front yards and were racked, several at a time, mounted on big-ass, lifted, pick-em-up trucks along with Confederate flags, and they frequently graced the frayed cotton “wife-beaters” of American riff-raff.

In a nutshell, Old Glory was hijacked—transformed to a symbol of misplaced allegiances not to our great country, but to the man who would seek to dismantle our democracy and become just another ruthless dictator.

It’s a sad day when America’s flag has become the symbol of Trump anarchists. These flag-wavers have rejected the results of fair elections, stormed our nation’s Capitol as their leader cheered them on and attempted to disenfranchise—through gerrymandering and limitation of voting sites—the voters who would likely reject MAGA candidates.

They appointed Supreme Court Justices who are neither fair nor impartial, who find it perfectly acceptable to accept bribes from donors seeking judicial favors. Those justices, appointed for a lifetime by politicians who have anything but the public interest in their hearts, are dedicated to a specific agenda—that of the people who seated them. This includes the purposeful weakening of personal freedoms, especially the rights of women and the limitations of free speech. These Anti-American hoodlums seek to intimidate those who dare to defy their new order of a Trump America.

The GOP is a notion of yesteryear. It has become the party of obstruction, interfering with people’s rights and promoting its own agendas. It has become the official Anti-America Party. If it is successful in installing the felon Donald Trump in the White House, we will see change. The MAGA movement and its deluded followers may believe that their cause is one of democracy, but another Trump term could well destroy the remaining core of our democratic principles.

I don’t know about you, but I am angry—angry that Old Glory has been stolen by those who wish to bring it down.

Americans, it’s time to take back our flag from the renegades, scheisters and crooks who’ve commandeered it. It is something worth preserving, and though it can use some repairing and updating, the system itself was well-conceived and is capable of keeping America great through many more years. Good leadership, progress and some careful refinements of the system can ensure that goal.

Don’t give your vote to the thug who intends to bring down our democracy. He’s told us who he is, and he’s told us what he’ll do. There’s no excuse for letting Trump and his Anti-America Party steal our flag and our future.

The author is a retired businessman, novelist, columnist and former Vietnam-era Army assistant public information officer. He resides in Riverton with his wife, Carol, and their adorable and ferocious dog “Poppy.”