CHICAGO \u2014 Patriotism is cool at this year\u2019s Democratic National Convention.<\/p>\n
Delegates wear suits adorned with stars and stripes, dresses with American flag patterns, and blouses featuring bald eagles or the Pledge of Allegiance. As attendees waved red, white and blue signs from their seats and chanted \u201cU-S-A\u201d on Monday night, country musician Mickey Guyton sang: \u201cWe got the same stars, the same stripes. Just wanna live that good life. Ain\u2019t we all, ain\u2019t we all American?\u201d<\/p>\n
The debate over which political party is more patriotic goes back decades. Republicans have often claimed the American flag as their own and argued that it represents conservative America, or signals alignment with conservative beliefs. But as they rally for the Democratic presidential ticket of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Democratic speakers and delegates are sporting Old Glory and other national symbols in what they say is a display of their patriotism and values \u2014 and a counterweight to former president Donald Trump\u2019s use of the flag as a partisan symbol.<\/p>\n
As delegates made their way to the convention floor at the United Center on Monday, Washington state delegates Ted Jones and Lora de la Portilla wore bright white cowboy hats as well as red, white and blue sashes that read \u201cCowboy Harris\u201d \u2014 outfits created as a nod to the \u201cCowboy Carter\u201d sash that Beyonc\u00e9 wears on the cover of her recent country music album. Jones and De La Portilla said they were looking forward to seeing Democrats take \u201cback the flag, the patriotism.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re taking back rural. We\u2019re taking back country. They can\u2019t claim it,\u201d Jones said of Republicans. \u201cJust cause a truck goes by with an American flag, we\u2019ve got to stop going: \u2018There goes a Trumper.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2023, a Gallup poll found that although 60 percent of Republicans expressed extreme pride in being American, only 29 percent of Democrats did. An April poll from Ipsos found that 92 percent of Republicans had a favorable opinion of the American flag, while 77 percent of Democrats did.<\/p>\n
But Americans\u2019 feelings about their country have tended to fluctuate based on whether their party occupies the Oval Office. A 2019 Gallup poll, for example, found that the percentage of Democrats who said then that they were extremely proud to be American sank from 56 percent in 2013 during the Obama era to 22 percent in 2019, deep in the Trump years. That same poll found that among Republicans, pride in the country rose from 68 to 76 percent between 2015 and 2019.<\/p>\n
Democrats in recent years have \u201cpointed out a lot of reasons why people shouldn\u2019t be proud of America, and shouldn\u2019t feel patriotic,\u201d said Peter Loge, director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. But Democrats in Chicago are \u201cmaking the case that, for whatever its flaws, there is a lot to be proud of and that you can be both a proud Democrat and a proud American,\u201d Loge added.<\/p>\n
Also in the arena, Umi Grigsby, an Illinois Democrat, walked around with a handful of \u201cUSA\u201d posters. Democratic convention staffers handed them out to audience members throughout the program, papering the hall in red, white and blue. The Liberian immigrant, who became a citizen in 2017, said those three letters represent her, and the symbolism of her carrying them around during the Democratic convention doesn\u2019t escape her.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s interesting how there\u2019s one party that seems to feel like they own patriotism and own the U.S. flag, when actually there\u2019s another party that\u2019s saying, like, \u2018You can all come here and we can all, you know, succeed here and it\u2019s for all of us,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Across the hall, Suzi Larson, a South Dakota delegate, waited in line fully decked out in red, white and blue. Her shawl was emblazoned with the American flag. Her shirt read, \u201cIn God We Trust.\u201d Her fingernails were painted red, her toenails blue with stars. Larson said that while many Democrats shied away from showing their patriotism during the Trump administration, the love for country \u201chas always been there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been tarnished, but it didn\u2019t go away,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The Democratic Party is presenting a message that there is \u201cnothing more American than freedom,\u201d Democratic National Committee spokesman Abhi Rahman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no reason for us to be afraid of using those symbols, because those symbols are our symbols and there\u2019s nobody that\u2019s more proud to be American than we are,\u201d Rahman said.<\/p>\n
Democrats at the convention have sought to claim other symbols as their own, too. Michael Welsh, an alternate delegate from Alaska, walked around the convention Monday wearing a red hat that looked like Trump\u2019s signature \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d cap from afar. His, however, read: \u201cMake Lying Wrong Again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Welsh, an Army veteran, said he was horrified to see symbols and messaging often associated with the military be misused on Jan. 6, 2021, the day a pro-Trump mob \u2014 some of whom Trump has glorified as \u201cpatriots\u201d \u2014 broke into the U.S. Capitol in a failed attempt to stop the certification of Joe Biden\u2019s 2020 presidential win. That, he said, was \u201ca real affront to our service.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s time for veterans, especially Democratic veterans, to reclaim that mantle of patriotism, especially in light of the appalling statements Donald Trump has made\u201d about veterans and service members, Welsh said.<\/p>\n
Democrats have also sported camouflage-patterned hats around the convention arena. Almost immediately after Harris announced Walz \u2014 a lifelong hunter, fisherman and gun owner \u2014 as her running mate, the campaign began selling camo hats with the Harris-Walz logo in bright orange.<\/p>\n
Camouflage patterns have a long history in the U.S. military, hunting culture and Republican campaign merchandise. The Harris-Walz hats \u2014 which sold out in 30 minutes, according to the campaign \u2014 bear a striking similarity to merchandise sold by \u201cRise and Fall of a Midwest Princess\u201d pop star Chappell Roan.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
CHICAGO \u2014 Patriotism is cool at this year\u2019s Democratic National Convention. Delegates wear suits adorned…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3135,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradetrovex.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}