I was hoping that President-elect Trump would fight for liberty as many of his positions have suggested (minus his stance on surveillance and some other issues). Donald Trumps latest attack on the First Amendment is showing us that the President-elect will be no friend of liberty after all.
Mr. Trump is making clear that he thinks burning American flags should be a crime. He even went so far as to say a flag burner should have their citizenship revoked.
“Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag – if they do, there must be consequences – perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!”
It’s one thing to personally disagree with protesters burning the flag, but pressing for criminalization is absurd.
The late Justice Antonin Scalia didn’t like the idea of burning American flags in protest. While Scalia personally disagreed, he ultimately voted to uphold the right to burn the flag in the 5-4 1989 ruling that clarified that the act is indeed protected speech.
“If it were up to me, I would put in jail every sandal-wearing, scruffy-bearded weirdo who burns the American flag,”
This is why Donald Trump is so dangerous to the Constitution. He has no ideology to hold to and he’s impulsive. Those two qualities make for a particularly annoying president.
The idea of Americans being arrested for simply burning a piece of fabric that represents our nation is insane. If Trump wants to reinforce the idea that he’s Hitler-esq then he should by all means push for prosecution of flag burners.
So let’s just hope that Trumps advisers have a more constitutionally sound approach to governance than he does.
Interesting note:
I was a supporter of Donald Trump ever since my original candidate–Rand Paul–dropped out of the race. I knew that he wasn’t the best candidate for liberty, but I still supported him. On issues like surveillance, I could look past it because most of the candidates in the field held the same or similarly awful views on surveillance.
But this latest attack on our freedoms is too much for me to stomach. The first amendment should not be messed with. Donald Trump needs to chill out and focus on improving the economy.
(h/t politico.com)