flag "desecration" amendment failed
Another of the GOP’s pandering project has gone down in flames: their proposed Constitutional amendment to solve the non-problem of flag “desecration” has failed to clear the Senate by a single vote. The New York Times mentions the conservative desire to overturn the 1989 Texas v. Johnson decision (491 US 397) that invalidated existing state flag protection statutes. This Washington Post article has the best anecdote:
The Citizens Flag Alliance, a group pushing for the Senate this week to pass a flag-burning amendment to the Constitution, just reported an alarming, 33 percent increase in the number of flag-desecration incidents this year.The number has increased to four, from three.
I guess that, since all the real problems of our nation have been solved, the GOP felt justified in going after a few purely symbolic ones.
update (12:27pm)
ThinkProgress has Orrin Hatch’s comments on the relative importance of flag-burning when compared to “the Iraq war, terrorism, the energy crisis, the 45 million Americans without health insurance or the 37 million Americans living in poverty.” Senator Hatch says:
I was asked this afternoon by a large body of media: Is this the most important thing the Senate could be doing at this time? I can tell you: You’re darned right it is.
It’s “the most important thing” for whom, exactly?