“[N]either the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.” –Samuel Adams

Occupy Oakland lit up this weekend – literally. Following a vicious day that included robberies, demolishing fences, rioting, and was highlighted by burning an American flag, over 400 occupiers were arrested on Saturday night.

But OWS, protesting “income inequality” and “corporate greed,” would never shamefully and purposely dishonor America, right?

Not so fast.

Apparently having not yet proved how anti-America they are, Occupy Oakland took the “protests” to a whole new level: They recorded a video during Saturday’s ruckus displaying the burning of an American flag along with their version of The Pledge of Allegiance:

I pledge allegiance to a flag of the imperialistic, capitalistic dictatorship.
And to the plutocracy for which it stands, depravity owned central bank, under the Jews.
With inequality and injustice for the 99.

This is something one’s more accustomed to seeing in the Middle East – not the middle of America.

For the record, these are the very same people that some of our elected leaders have, in a roundabout way, supported:

“In some ways, [Occupy Wall Street protests are] not that different from some of the protests that we saw coming from the Tea Party. Both on the left and the right, I think people feel separated from their government. They feel that their institutions aren’t looking out for them.” –Barack Obama

“I think that if you look at the Occupy Wall Street folks and the Tea Party folks, they come from the same perspective. They just have different solutions. What they’re saying is, ‘government is not working for me anymore.’” –New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie

“The message of the protesters is a message for the establishment everyplace. No longer will the recklessness of some on Wall Street cause massive joblessness on Main Street. … God bless them for their spontaneity. It’s independent … it’s young, it’s spontaneous, it’s focused. And it’s going to be effective.” –House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi

Question: When was the last time you ever saw the Tea Party burn an American flag?

Let’s also not forget the media’s love affair with OWS:

“Whereas much of the Tea Party’s programmatic ire seems directed at the very idea of government – and instead trumpets the virtue of self-reliance and the inexorable righteousness of the free market – Occupy Wall Street more sharply decries the collusion of corporate and political elites in Washington. … To the outside observer, that may seem foolishly utopian – and impracticable on a larger scale – but it’s a sign of the deep political commitment of many of the protesters gathering under Occupy Wall Street’s banner. They want to fix government, not escape from it.” –TIME magazine’s Ishaan Tharoor

“Jesus was an Occupier, born under a death warrant, a Jew by religion, born in poverty under Roman occupation. Gandhi was an Occupier, Martin Luther King was an Occupier, [Nelson] Mandela was an Occupier.” –Jesse Jackson

“I mean, [Obama’s] numbers are going up as the Republican party’s numbers come down. And I think it’s due to the fact that the president has more aggressively and more definitively, I would hope, positioned himself as with the people, as with the 99 percent, or the 99.99 percent in this case. It’s a smart political move on the president’s part and I think a sincere move because I do think if you think of his background, for example, he did not lead a privileged upbringing. His family was on food stamps for a while. He earned what he has in life, and I think he appreciates it.” –Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson

It’s one thing to make your voice heard – after all, that’s what America represents: Liberty. But intentionally dishonoring and disrespecting what America represents takes despicable to a whole new level. Trampling on liberty digs down to the very core of their belief: that liberty is a one-way street – “My way or the highway” – and we should get what we’re “entitled” to.