Imagine that you live in a neighborhood with people who work at a nearby military base. It is an extremely patriotic neighborhood because most of its residents understand the sacrifice that Old Glory represents. Now imagine that some upstart Homeowners Association (HOA) drunk on power decides to post this message warning against displaying political paraphernalia in front yards (a.k.a. the “common area”):

“Once the members allow use of a common property by an owner to express what is essentially a political or affiliative view in a flag, other owners will want to do the same and the common area will degrade.”

One might think this message — posted on a community notice board during the 2024 election and still lingering today — is specifically addressing pride or BLM flags, not the American flag, the symbol of our nation. After all, both Democrat and Republican men and women have bled and died for this country. But you’d be wrong.

In California, a neighborhood HOA has disallowed residents from displaying American flags in their front yards — with no exceptions for the 4th of July or America’s 250th birthday. Why? According to the HOA’s leftist leaders, the American flag is a MAGA symbol and thus politically charged.

This view is not an uncommon one on the Left. For example, an NBC News article shares the “plight” of a New England man who put out other signs in his yard along with the American flag just to ensure that people know he’s not MAGA. Frankly, the Left has long been trending away from viewing the flag as a symbol of the American people, our service members, and the values that make the Untied States great.

Recall that it was a Democrat who burned the first American flag back in May of 1861. In the 1960s and ‘70s, it was again Democrats who burned the flag in protest against the Vietnam War. Despite a century of states enacting laws to protect the flag from desecration, the Supreme Court ruled in 1989 that burning it was protected under the First Amendment as a form of free speech.

The fight over the symbol of Old Glory still rages today, but Democrats, to their consternation and discredit, are increasingly radical and increasingly hate the flag and all it stands for.

The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro, citing that same NBC article, says:

Apparently, a bunch of people on the Left are going to fly the flag, but upside down to protest President Trump.

One person interviewed by NBC News said her father will be flying the American flag, but if it were up to her and her mom, they’d be flying the Pride flag or the Philadelphia Eagles flag instead.

That’s insane. You feel more loyalty and love for the Philadelphia Eagles than you do for the country?

According to NBC News, some people said they were motivated more by peer pressure than by patriotism to fly their flags. A teacher said she is flying alternate flags, the rainbow pride flag, and the banner of her beloved New England Patriots. The teacher said she had not flown the flag since 2024, when Trump was elected for a second term, saying, “I have a gay son and a grandson and felt that the flag was now a symbol flown by people who don’t want my children to exist.”

Herein lies the problem. The American flag is a symbol. Symbols have underlying meanings. They stand for things. The American flag stands for something different than the swastika or the Pride Progress flag.

What does the American flag stand for historically? Most obviously, the promise of the Declaration of Independence and the greatness of the American Constitution, the greatest system of government ever devised by man.

And yes, a set of values rooted in the Bible, because it turns out that the Declaration and the Constitution were not born out of arid soil. They didn’t spring full-blown from the heads of the men who wrote them. They are the apex of a system of values that was rooted thousands of years beforehand.

So if you don’t like those things, you’re probably doing Americanism wrong. You’re failing to understand what makes America great and awesome, regardless of your politics.

Leftism and progressivism reject important lessons that history should have taught us. They dismiss the wisdom of great thinkers and centuries of political tinkering, falling into the exact same traps of the past. Instead of cherishing legacy, they prefer destroying society to rebuild it in their own image. The lessons of history, reframed through their toxic worldview, are merely a cudgel with which to beat centrist Democrats, independents, and conservatives. Instead of biblical values as a morality to strive for, they prefer the doctrine of individual indulgence.

The flag is a symbol of the American people, American ideas, and American values. It is a symbol of greatness, innovation, and freedom. It is a symbol of bravery and sacrifice. It is a symbol that other countries envy during the Olympic Games because that Grand Old Flag is lifted high quite often during the medal ceremonies.

By rejecting the American flag, the far-Left is rejecting America itself. It is shameful and foolish because there are many governmental forms of what they are pursuing — socialism and communism — around the world. They all end in death, chaos, and destruction. What we have created here in the U.S. is unique and rare. But Liberty is only ever one generation away from disappearing. It is up to all of us to preserve it — and it starts with flying the American flag.