Sen. Boucher, the Gadsden Flag and Deception

by: Russell's 10

Fri Jul 02, 2010 at 14:42:46 PM EDT

Some background: Last April, a group of Connecticut tea partiers wanted to fly the Gadsden Flag over the state Capitol in Hartford during their rally. A mini-controversy erupted when the Capitol Police wouldn't allow it. Initially it had been OK-ed, but then after complaints that it was, in fact, a flag with contemporary political significance, the approval was rescinded.  

Since then, the Tea Party crew has been eager to find a new strategy to get the flag flown, so they can - I don't know - say they won something other than the elections they can't win in Connecticut.  So now, they are leveraging the fact that some tea partiers are US Marines (non-active) and pretending that the request to fly the flag is simply a display of respect for the Corps.  It's a preposterous claim, and any  politician with a hint of a conscience should know that and rebuff the effort.  Instead, sensing an opportunity to ingratiate themselves to the people who don't think the US Supreme Court has the authority to decide the constitutionality of laws, they go along with the charade and hope you don't know the history.

Sen. Boucher was particularly shameless in her appeal to patriotism and respect for the military as a rationale for carrying on an obviously political skirmish:

"Independence Day celebrates the birth of our nation and the freedom we cherish," Boucher says. "Granting the U.S. Marines' request to fly their flag over our State Capitol on July 4th is a wonderful way to show our gratitude for the sacrifices that members of our armed forces make to keep us free."
Boucher says she is disappointed previous requests to fly the Gadsden Flag over the Capitol were denied, considering it's been associated with those who fight for our country since the Revolutionary War. She says she understands the desire to protect the Capitol from being used to promote any political agenda, but the flag's attachment to the military makes it appropriate to display, "regardless of who else has since adopted it for their own reasons."

Ms. Boucher needs a quick education on this matter.  So, Toni, prepare to be schooled (and Sam and Larry, you guys can take seats in the back of the room and take notes).

Gold and scarlet are the official colors of the Marine Corps. All guidons, banners, athletic ribbons, pennants, and other articles ordinarily designed to represent the Marine Corps, will use these colors.

Well, that seems clear.  A yellow flag with a green snake certainly does not fit that criteria.

In the "History" section of the US Marine Flag Manual, the very first thing it says is:

Very little information is available regarding the flags carried by early American Marines, although indication are that the Grand Union flag was carried ashore by the battalion led by Captain Samuel Nicholas on New Providence Island, 3 March 1776. It is quite possible that the Rattlesnake flag was also carried on this expedition.

That's it.  "Quite possible" that it was carried on one expedition.  There is no further reference to the Gadsden Flag for another seventy pages (more on that below).  The History section goes on to describe flags carried prior to the Mexican-American war, which are clearly not the Gadsden Flag. It discusses the evolution of those early flags, other flags commonly displayed as Marine flags in the 19th and early 20th centuries and the adoption, in 1939, of the modern US Marine Corps Flag.  It is described in great detail, and the permissible variants of the flag are discussed and shown.  They all look pretty much like this (with some variations in the wording on the banner):

It is crystal clear that you can't recognize the Gadsden Flag as a symbol of the US Marines without disregarding the Flag Manual published by the Marine Corps itself.

I searched the entire manual for references to the Gadsden Flag.  Aside from the reference above (Section 1, part a. of the very first page about the flags of the US Marines), I found only this, from page B-3, discussing the history of the flag of the United States:

During our Revolution, various banners were used by the not-yet-united colonies. A green pine tree with the motto "An Appeal To Heaven," was popular with our young Navy. The rattlesnake's warning, "Don't Tread On Me," was displayed by aroused colonists along the Atlantic seaboard. The Moultrie "Liberty" flag, a large blue banner with a white crescent in the upper corner, rallied the defenders of Charleston, South Carolina, in 1776.

It continues with descriptions of other flags used at various sites throughout the Revolution.  But these are all mentioned as preludes to the adoption of the US Flag.  To say the Gadsden Flag is a Marine flag, you have to ignore the Marine Flag Manual, and just base your argument on its appearance in handful of early military engagements.  This is like saying that "Yankee Doodle" is our national anthem.  It's the same logic.

It is, clear, however, that the Gadsden flag is the symbol of choice for the Tea Party faithful.  Just skim through the photos from the May 16th Tea Party Rally in Norwalk, as covered by the CT Post.  Like this one:





or this one:



or this one:



If you want more evidence, I refer you to the conservative Family Institute of CT, who urged supporters to rally to the defense of the Tea Party activists who were denied permission to raise the Gadsden Flag over the Capitol in April.  From the Family Institute website's "Take Action" section:

The Gadsden Flag was supposed to be raised above the Capitol Building in Hartford tomorrow in honor of the Connecticut Tea Party Patriots. The "Don't Tread On Me" flag, which has become a symbol for the tea party movement, was supposed to fly proudly above the Capitol until their April 15th rally. The flag also dates back to the American Revolution, a symbol of our heritage of liberty.

[snip]

Even though Tea Party leaders have offered to scrap their rally and press conference to make the flag-raising as non-political as possible, the Capitol police will still not allow it to go forward.

Our Tea Party friends are going forward with it anyway. They will bring their own Gadsden Flag and flagpole to the Capitol tomorrow and hold the flag-raising.

I love that the argument then was that the flag was the Tea Party symbol, which dates back to the Revolution as a symbol of our liberty, with no mention of the US Marines.  And that the Tea party folks recognized its political implications, so offered to scrap their presser just to see it fly. Having failed, they simply try a new argument, and get a few Republicans to go along.

It is obvious that the current calls to raise this flag over the Capitol are exclusively right-wing political activism.  When Toni Boucher, Larry Cafero, and Sam Caligiuri try to mask that by suggesting that it is a way to honor Marines, they are engaging in the most base, vile form of political theater imaginable - attempting to use the military as a campaign prop.  

As a constituent, I call on Boucher to rescind this or justify it in light of the information posted here:

In her news release, Boucher says the Gadsden Flag is recognized as the flag of a military organization of our nation, and meets eligibility requirements for being flown over the Capitol.

THE flag?  THE?

It's a shame when extremist elements of a party try to claim a military symbol as their own. It's a bigger shame when elected representatives (who surely know the purely political motivation behind this request) intentionally try to hide that effort from their constituents.

The Republicans trying to showboat here should just be honest about it: It's a tea party thing and you're more interested in shoring up right-wing support than maintaining the political neutrality of the managers State Capitol building.  And if you're gonna wrap yourself in a flag, make sure it's the right one.