No Flag Pin? Shame on You!

The right wingers have been making a big deal about Obama "refusing" to wear an American flag pin (the last refuge of scoundrels and all that.) Barack had a good response:

“A party that presided over a war in which our troops did not get the body armor they needed, or were sending troops over who were untrained because of poor planning, or are not fulfilling the veterans’ benefits that these troops need when they come home, or are undermining our Constitution with warrantless wiretaps that are unnecessary?

“That is a debate I am very happy to have. We’ll see what the American people think is the true definition of patriotism.”

Jack Kingston (R-GA) went on Real Time with Bill Maher to question Obama's patriotism:

One of the memes he was pushing was about Obama refusing to wear his flag pin. But wait, where is his flag pin??

Another variation on this theme is the "refusal" to put his hand over his heart during the national anthem. But wait.....

One conservative whose patriotism you CANNOT question is Larry Craig, from his mugshot:

Courtesy of TRex.

Fetishsizing salutes and flag pins is, of course, not unique in history. From Time Magazine, October 23rd, 1933:

Jewelers and novelty shops all over the Reich did a brisk business last week selling lapel pins enameled or embossed with foreign flags. In many cases the pins doubtless worked, saved their wearers from instant Nazi assault for failure to salute passing Storm Troop banners. But one day last week in the smoky Ruhr metropolis of Dusseldorf, inoffensive Roland Velz, a U. S. citizen and superintendent of a group of Germany's Woolworth stores, went walking, pinless, with his wife. Cheering Dusseldorfers stood massed along the curbstone six deep as a Storm Battalion marched past, grim-faced with blaring horns and throbbing drums. Mr. & Mrs. Velz, as they edged down the sidewalk behind the packed standees failed to salute the Storm Troop's swastika flag. Smack!—a uniformed Nazi edging the other way down the sidewalk bashed Mr. Velz on the mouth. Smack!—he bashed him again. U. S. Citizen Velz's lips and nose gushed blood. Spying a policeman, Mr. Velz cried, "Arrest this man—he hit me!" "You can appeal, if you like," shrugged the policeman, "to our police lieutenant on the corner." "Herr Leutnant!" spluttered Mr. Velz, but the officer cut him short. "You did not salute the flag? It is always advisable to give the Nazi salute. Raise your arm, like this—so!—and you will be all right." In no mood to practice Nazi salutes, bleeding Citizen Velz rushed off to the U. S. consulate in Berlin, swore to the facts of his bashing and waited to see what action would be taken by that detached, God-fearing Baptist, U. S. Ambassador William Edward Dodd.