{"id":1752,"date":"2025-10-19T05:34:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T05:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/firearmgiveawayfinder.com\/?p=1752"},"modified":"2025-10-19T05:34:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T05:34:10","slug":"there-sure-were-a-lot-of-american-flags-at-the-hate-america-rally-mother-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/firearmgiveawayfinder.com\/?p=1752","title":{"rendered":"There Sure Were a Lot of American Flags at the \u201cHate America Rally\u201d \u2013 Mother Jones"},"content":{"rendered":"


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The No Kings protest, heading toward the US Capitol Building<\/span>Allison Robbert\/AP<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Get your news from a source that\u2019s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily<\/em>.<\/a><\/div>\n

The first protester<\/span> I noticed as I approached the No Kings rally Saturday was dressed as a giant yellow duck. All around, demonstrators were converging on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC\u2014one wore a Lincoln-style stovepipe hat and carried a sign that read, \u201cProtect Constitutional Rights\u201d and \u201cI \u2665<\/strong> America.\u201d <\/p>\n

Animal costumes have become an ever-present symbol<\/a> of the anti-Trump movement\u2014a way to mock the administration\u2019s assertions that protests are overrun with dangerous radicals. In DC, the duck was joined by a smattering of other fauna: a chicken here, a few dinosaurs there. But what struck me most about the event\u2014which House Speaker Mike Johnson predicted<\/a> would be a \u201chate America rally\u201d\u2014was how earnestly patriotic the demonstrators were.<\/p>\n

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Jeremy Schulman\/Mother Jones<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

American flags were everywhere, carried by people of all races and ages. A few flew upside-down, symbolizing\u2014Alito-style<\/a>\u2014a nation in distress. Most were waved proudly. Signs declared protesters\u2019 allegiance to the country, the Constitution, democracy, and the rule of law.<\/p>\n

Robin, a DC resident whose flag-adorned sign included the full text of the First Amendment, said she wanted to make clear that \u201cjust because we\u2019re liberals doesn\u2019t mean we hate America.\u201d<\/p>\n

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There were other flags, too: A lot of Pride flags; some Palestinian, Mexican, and Ukrainian flags; an Irish flag. There were a ton of DC flags\u2014they\u2019ve popped up everywhere in the city since Trump\u2019s militarized takeover.<\/p>\n

But those were all out numbered, by far<\/em>, by American flags. The protest organizers made sure of that. Many marchers had clearly brought their own from home, but volunteers were on hand to pass out flags to anyone who wanted one. \u201cI\u2019m trying to protect democracy in this country,\u201d said Neshama, one of those volunteers. \u201cWe need to show that the people at the rally are pro-America.\u201d<\/p>\n

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I talked to a trio of older protesters sitting on a wall, together holding an American flag as marchers streamed endlessly past. They didn\u2019t want to give their names or have their photo taken; they said they were afraid of being doxxed. \u201cI support democracy and our country,\u201d one of them told me. \u201cIt\u2019s not about ideology.\u201d He said that growing up, he\u2019d never imagined that all three branches of government would be \u201csupporting autocracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

A woman chimed in; she wanted to share what another member of the group had said to her earlier: \u201cI\u2019ve never bought an American flag before, and this is what it\u2019s come to.\u201d We all laughed, and one of them added that \u201cit was important to show that we love America, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

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