Looking at
today's U.S. Senate vote on the constitutional amendment to ban flag burning, I was struck by one vote in particular. Mark Dayton (D-Minnesota) is retiring this year. So he could have cast a No vote and made the margin of defeat 2 votes instead of 1, easing the pressure on some of his vulnerable colleagues. Anyone know why the heck he didn't?
Kent Conrad from North Dakota had the guts to vote No. So did Sen. Byrd. They're both up this year. So did Mark Pryor from Arkansas and Byron Dorgan from N.D. Meanwhile, Evan Bayh just lost some courage points.
By the way, as a patriotic American, I find flag burning repulsive. But I find this Republican rubber-stamp Congress to be a lot more repulsive (2,500 U.S. dead and counting in Iraq) and frankly, unpatriotic.
And I am disturbed to read things like this:
The countries that enacted national bans on flag desecration are Cuba, China, Iran, Nazi Germany and Iraq under Saddam Hussein.
(source: Philadelphia Inquirer)
The same article says Scalia and Powell both oppose the amendment.
Think Progress has a list of veterans who oppose the amendment.
And let's go back to Sen. Conrad. He's been facing ads from the Citizens Flag Alliance. Didn't faze him. His spokesman tells USA Today, "This is not an issue that people are talking to us about."