It's Our Flag too, Dammit

Protests must have an objective. If people are called out, why are they there? Contemporary protests are too often unconnected to any plan and are more therapy than social change. No Kings Day is laudable—getting folks organized and trained to protest what Trump is doing—but these events are primarily for the perennially anti-Trump base to assuage anxieties rather than effect much else useful. Conveniently held on weekends and around the corner—even in red states and congressional districts—all designed to provide an illusion of national progress.

Meaningful Protests

Meaningful protests are those that, for instance, rise up when a community member is abducted by ICE. Often these are set up by contingency plan, so folks become Liberty’s First Responders, dropping everything at a text to literally stop the transport of a specific person, to keep them local and then facilitate release from detention. Very specific reasons guiding protest make them effective.

So, why are there protesters (as few as they are) in Los Angeles? On one hand, this parses as an absurd question. Trump has the National Guard and Marines running around to create conflict to then use any conflict as support for deployment. His actions are cynical, fascistic, and dangerous—meant to distract from the horrors of his big beautiful kill-people bill and convince his base Trump is fighting chaos for them.

Trump constantly labors to create a foreign “other” from everyone not white: a shadow creature red-county folks believe exists, who tell tales of this Baba Yaga to their children to keep them well-behaved, and who see Trump as protection from anarchy. Any conflict over military presence in Los Angeles is proof to the MAGA base of everything anti-immigrant Trump asserts—even as only the military presence creates any conflict.

Protesters know full well why Trump is there, and they are justly angry. People are proud and appreciate what makes them who they are within the community they share. Everyone is just trying to pursue the happiness our Declaration asserts, and they are enraged at how Trump and MAGA fight daily to take this all away. A protest goal of asserting agency and demanding respect is important. But if the real goal is to get Trump the hell out of town, what is the best way of doing that?

Fly the flag

Use the American flag—wrap every protester in the Red, White, and Blue. Visually show everyone is American. A protester flying a Mexican flag does so from pride in heritage and community, not from allegiance to Mexico. Such a display is not in any way wrong. Sadly though, for the MAGA-sympathetic and FOX talent, this only reinforces the Trump narrative that there are separate, alien communities within our country more loyal to somewhere else than here. So in Los Angeles today, an act to assert personal dignity and agency is not seen that way across the United States and its iconography works against the immediate goal of ejecting Trump’s military.

But consider if a thousand protesters, all shades of not-Anglo, carried Old Glory to assert their American rights. FOX News would have a collective aneurysm. The Right would be caught flat-footed about what they would eventually call a “cynical ploy.” But the visuals would be beautiful and stuck in the public imagination.

The sad truth is the Right has typecast our Stars and Stripes as something racist and reactionary. In progressive circles, it is akin to the Confederate battle flag—unimaginable, if you consider the flag at our nation’s beginning; the flag that prevailed to burn slavery’s evil from the national soul; the flag that brought fascism to its end in World War II. While the United States is far from perfect—committing our own genocide and organized repression campaigns—I believe we fought fascism in World War II and built the United Nations driven by our costly experience of contending with our own evils.

Our flag represents as much that is admirable as that which must be condemned. But, if I came out to a No Kings Day protest with a big American flag, folks would look for my red hat. Here is where our country’s Left squanders opportunity: flying the flag affirms we are part of this country, just as everyone else. MAGA expects us to hate America, and showing some affection for it would be disorienting. Embracing the flag makes it that much more difficult to be portrayed as the other. Evoking the flag in the context of our Declaration of Independence, the Four Freedoms, and Brown v. Board of Education connects progressive core values to those of our country.

Decide the protest

A critical point in Sun Tzu’s Art of War is to attack where an enemy does not want to defend, at a place they have to rush to defend. It is unsettling and disorienting for opponents, which provides opportunity to win by protest.

So this is a decision for every protest: Is it to make a poin or is it to win? Get cars to honk as they pass your No Kings protest, or keep innocent people out of detention? Assert one’s pride and agency to educate Americans, or cut Trump off at his knees and get him out of town as quickly as possible?

I realize that planning involves some hierarchy, which the Left finds anathema of late. But any protester can consider how an action will be seen by people who have little knowledge of the protesters and watch out for where intent may go sideways rather than advance a protest’s goals. Beyond this, it is critical for a protest to focus on clear goals—like keeping innocents from detention. This makes any protest much more sensible to anyone uninitiated and, therefore, more effective.

A Progressive Art of War.

We must be honest with ourselves and admit our strategies to-date left us with Trump 2.0 . We need to deeply consider what the progressive movement is and how to restructure our strategies to match the challenges today in fighting privilege. This is no call for centrism, but rather a plea to create an effective movement that wins the day in the face of virulent opposition.

Why read this edition?

Unrooted in the modern day, reading The Art of War is a chance to consider strategy as strategy, while avoiding distractions of modern theories on political action and social change. The work encourages readers to carefully examine their situation, motivations, resources, opposition and to avoid reacting, but rather purposefully act to win with as little conflict as possible.

I have added in-line comments to map the work onto contemporary progressive movement language to make connections more clear and relevant.

Available on Amazon or order from a bookstore near you.