Republicans Stick It To The Libs With Inauguration Day Defiance

The American flag will fly at full-staff on Monday to honor Donald Trump’s inauguration. All I can say is: good.

Yet for those who feign to take our norms and laws super duper seriously, this is a deep insult. In one of his last moves before leaving the White House, President Joe Biden ordered the flag be flown at half-mast for 30 days to honor the life and legacy of Jimmy Carter. How dare these upstart Republicans defy a lawful order? Threats to democracy, all of them!

Yet that’s exactly what they did.

First, it was Texas Gov. Greg Abbot who declared Texas would be raising the flag anyway in honor of Trump’s inauguration. “While we honor the service of a former President, we must also celebrate the service of an incoming President and the bright future ahead for the United States of America,” Abbott said in the announcement.

A slew of Republican governors followed, including Florida, Tennessee, Iowa and North Dakota. Not to be outdone, House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that flags would also fly on Capitol Hill.

“On Jan. 20, the flags at the Capitol will fly at full staff to celebrate our country coming together behind the inauguration of our 47th president, Donald Trump,” Mr. Johnson said in the announcement. The flags will return to half-mast for Carter the following day.

Cue the lefty pearl clutching.

“Is it legal?” asks The Miami Herald.

The move “breaks federal protocol” reports Newsweek, wagging its finger.

And if you look at the grassroots outrage on BlueSky, the lib alternative to X, you’d think Trump personally spit on the graves of fallen soldiers.

I told y’all he wouldn’t keep the flag at half mast. What a piece of shit.

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— Mueller, She Wrote (@muellershewrote.bsky.social) January 3, 2025 at 3:17 PM

They’ll pretend it’s all about respect for law, order, and propriety. That it’s merely a matter of presidential principle as if they plan to honor Trump the same way when his own 30 days come to pass. Color me doubtful. In reality, Biden’s order was every bit about honoring Carter as it was about getting under Trump’s skin. Clearly, it worked.

But the phony moralizing lays their hypocrisy bare. Remember, Biden routinely played fast and loose with flag protocol to raise the rainbow Pride flag at official events and residences. Unsurprisingly, we heard mum from the left there. Fact-checkers even weighed in to defend the move.

The Pride flag carries with it a certain value system, an update from traditional morality: self-fulfillment is the highest good, and “tolerance” outweighs religious freedom. Raising the flag in an official capacity is meant to show that a progressive worldview triumphs over the pretenders. As the American flag once did, the Pride flag speaks for all, or so the Biden administration implicitly claims.

Republicans typically wouldn’t pull a stunt like this. It’s too uncouth, too needlessly confrontational, and partisan. They believe in the mirage of neutrality even as it evaporates before their eyes. It’s why they’ve made a custom of losing. Raising the American flag in defiance of the Democratic establishment is a step in the right direction and sends a similar message as the Dems’ Pride flag stunt. It claims the mantle of objective patriotism. All may rejoice, for Trump is President!

And who knows? Claim to speak for all Americans with enough confidence and consistency, and Republicans might actually start doing just that.