Last Thursday, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune ran an article saying Sen. Mark Dayton, with Sen. Coleman, would support the Amendment to ban flag-burning.

I am absolutely outraged that Sen. Dayton, would change his mind on this topic.

So Sen. Mark Dayton has hopped on the flag-burning-amendment bandwagon (Star Tribune, May 30).

Ben Seymour, in a letter to the editor in the Star Tribune, put it best:

Dayton is echoing the rhetoric used to stifle criticism of our government. “There’s something in this country that ought to be above government and all the debates in the parties,” he says.

In a democracy, no idea with broad support is above debate. We should question the motives of these politicians.

It’s pathetic when they return from their dead soldier pilgrimages with “patriotic” epiphanies, which in reality are ill-reasoned, American-ideal-desecrating attempts at popularity boosting, at best.

As you can see here on the ACLU’s page against this amendment, even Secretary of State Colin Powell, former Chairman of the Joint Chief’s of Staff, agrees with me on this one:

“The First Amendment exists to insure that freedom of speech and expression applies not just to that with which we agree or disagree, but also that which we find outrageous,” he said. “I would not amend that great shield of democracy to hammer a few miscreants. The flag will be flying proudly long after they have slunk away.”

Cuba jails dissidents over flag desecration. Is this what we have sunk to in the name of “patriotism”?

Email, fax, or write your members in Congress here.

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