Photo Courtesy of Ted Eytan (Flickr)
The battle between President-elect Donald Trump and his embittered detractors continues to rage on with less than two months to go before his formal inauguration. In the wake of recent flag burnings at anti-Trump protests, the ever-divisive Trump sent out a tweet stating that people who burn the American flag should go to jail or have their citizenship revoked.
Predictably, Trump’s statement incited an uproar with the public and provoked outrage among many politicians. It was a poor move on Trump’s part because this is exactly what his detractors want him to do. Trump detractors are purposely doing things like burning the American flag to provoke the president-elect to respond by verbally lashing out at them. In turn, Trump looks like the bad guy and his detractors look like the saints fighting for democracy.
People should not be arrested for burning the American flag nor should they lose their citizenship, yet, those who partake in such actions should realize the gravity of what they are doing.
When you burn the American flag, you are not just doing something mischievous to spite the new president-elect. Burning the American flag is showing disrespect to a country that has granted more rights and freedoms to its citizens than most countries around the world.
The right to burn the American flag is protected under the First Amendment right of free speech. Although, just because you are allowed to do something does not always make it the right thing to do. Burning the American flag shows that you do not have true appreciation for the country that grants its citizens so many rights. Many countries imprison citizens for burning their flags, but that does not happen in the United States of America.
Trump should have thought out his words before tweeting them. Millions of people in this country already hate Trump. Millions have been protesting all over the country because they feel Trump is a man who will take away their rights and twist everything in this country to suit his agendas.
Trump only added fuel to the distrust that many Americans already feel about him by making a bone-headed decision in writing a poorly thought-out statement.
There is no side that is fully justified in their actions in this situation. People feel passionately about things they believe in, but there are always productive and intelligent ways to go about expressing beliefs and trying to solve issues.
Detractors of Trump only show themselves to be immature and petty when they decide to use radical extremes like burning the American flag to prove their point. On the flip side, Trump continues to act childish by letting his detractors get to him and making threatening statements.
Whoever works for Trump’s public relations team has to understand that the president-elect cannot be expressing the same low level of professionalism as those who are causing disruptive movements and creating chaos to protest Trump. They cannot allow Trump to make ill-advised tweets because we have seen that his tweets only further the anger and divisiveness among the public.
At the same token, Trump’s protesters need to understand that Trump won the election fairly and in decisive fashion. The fact that people still cannot move on nearly a month after the election occurred shows that a lot of people have too much free time on their hands.
Trump still has not been officially sworn in yet and will not be for another month. This petty game of cat and mouse between Trump and his protestors needs to come to an end to ensure a peaceful transition and to honor the foundations that our country was built on.
