OPINION: Don't mistake my flag for your politics

While out on my Sunday morning run, I suffered an indignity, the likes of which hit me a half mile down the road. As I approached an intersection, a driver starting into the intersection after a red light yelled at me, “Go MAGA, yeah baby!” pumping his fist in the air out his window, as I ran past him in the opposite direction.

At the time I figured another Trump supporter, out seeking attention, while boosting his wanting ego. But a few minutes later it hit me.

My brother-in-law, retired Air Force, had long ago gifted me a red long-sleeve shirt with the U.S. flag on the front. It’s too big for me so its perfect for cool morning runs. My unknown MAGA friend had made a terrible mistake assuming my flag-bearing shirt meant I agreed with anything in his nightmarish political wheelhouse.

It didn’t bother me too much he had assumed I was in his corner on hateful immigrant roundups; his hero trying to name every building his gaze falls upon after himself; posting memes of a past president and his wife as apes; raiding county clerks’ offices to try to make a case (lost many times) that the 2020 election had been stolen from him; appointing completely untrained and uneducated cabinet secretaries or whatever the latest thing President Donald Trump has done or said.

No, what bothered me and still does is that MAGA folks feel they have co-opted the American flag, much like the gay community took the rainbow. I don’t really care that the rainbow now represents gay pride or who uses it, but I do care about what the U.S. flag symbolizes, and it is not MAGA and its mission of bigotry, illegal acts and boosting Trump’s always-wanting ego.

The American flag stands for everything Trump and his minions are not. It stands for the rights of all people regardless of color, religion or even political beliefs. It stands for a way of life protected by checks and balances and a system that gives the little people a voice, even when the majority has control.

I served in the Air Force for 11 years. I have much respect for the flag, not so much the people who allegedly represent us. I’d love to see the whole House and Senate replaced with qualified people with morals, but that’s for another column.

The flag’s been defended many times by a military lead by high-ranking officers and noncommissioned officers of pristine moral character. I don’t reference the “yes men” who listened to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth denigrate the men and women in uniform without standing up and saying, “This is wrong. You are out of line.”

I tutor an English-as-a-second-language student who is working toward gaining citizenship. We work on the citizenship test flash cards every session. A few months ago, he asked me to explain checks and balances and how the executive branch can’t take control because the legislative and court sectors keep it in check.

It’s hard explaining how or why so many Republicans who value reelection can’t do what is right. They’ve kowtowed to Trump and a U.S. Supreme Court populated by deeply biased judges. This has given us very weak checks and balances guardrails. A majority of the country watches these people who are supposed to represent us bow to a man of no character nor scruples and do his bidding.

The flag will survive this presidential term. I believe in 2028 it will still stand for everything good in this country and the likes of Trump will slither back to his Florida swamp. I hope we all remember the cowards who now abet his abuse of power and hang on every word he spouts. There should be a reckoning for them.

No one owns the flag or can change what it stands for, the least of them being MAGA. We have 250 years of history, wars, political upheavals, civil rights fights and financial lessons learned behind the flag.

Trying as he is, one president can’t undo that. We just have to stay on task and know we’ll come out of it stronger, as we always do.

Bob Trapp is the former editor and publisher of Rio Grande Sun in Española. He is also a member of the Albuquerque Journal Community Council.