Flags have always meant different things to different people. That is not new. The Civil War split the Stars and Stripes into two warring symbols.
The Vietnam War turned it into a target for protesters who burned it. Now, as America marks its 250th birthday, the flag is again caught in a political storm.
Bruce Watson, a 72-year-old writer in a small New England town, has flown the flag for years. He called it a straightforward emblem of national pride. “I’m very proud of our flag,” he told NBC News.
“It’s the symbol of ‘We, the People.’” But that was before the current moment. Watson now says the flag has become tangled up in the politics of President Donald Trump.
He told NBC News that if he flies the flag, he will also put out signs to make clear he is not MAGA. The shift is not limited to one corner of the country. Polls show patriotism, national pride and optimism for the nation’s future are all fraying.
The flag, hung on front porches or waved at parades, now carries multiple meanings — some of them contradictory. Compare this to earlier eras. After the September 11 attacks, flag sales soared.
People displayed them as a unified response to an external enemy. The symbol was clear.
Today the enemy is internal. The divide is between Americans who see the flag as a nonpartisan emblem and those who see it as a banner for the current administration. Dina Bannick, 61, who lives outside Des Moines, Iowa, plans to fly the flag upside down.
That signal means the country is in distress. “Donald Trump has turned everything upside down, so it makes sense our flag should be upside down,” she said.
“It’s a shame. We used to be a proud nation. Now, our country is in distress.” On the other side, Dave Cavannah, a professional woodcarver from Monson, Massachusetts, is so devoted to Trump that he is busy chiseling a statue of him.
He questioned such protests. The flag, for him, is tied to a way of life — and to the current president. The 1960s offer another parallel.
Then, the flag was flown by both anti-war protesters and by those who supported the war in Vietnam. The same piece of cloth meant loyalty for some and resistance for others.
That tension never fully resolved. It faded, but it did not disappear. Now the stakes are clear again.
A symbol meant to unite has become another front in the nation’s political divide. For some, the flag is not tied to any one party.
For others, it can be taken as an endorsement of the current administration. Watson’s solution — flying the flag alongside a clarifying sign — is a small act. But it reflects a larger problem.
When a national symbol requires an asterisk, the nation itself is fractured. The 250th birthday is not a celebration of unity. It is a reminder that some divisions run deeper than any flag can cover.
