Because that’s what really mattered tonight to the looney tune right: not the discussions of and debates about policy, but a symbolic gesture, like the jerkwads who insist on flag lapel pins yet piss all over the Constitution every day.
Tim Ryan stood on stage tonight during the Star-Spangled Banner, hands clasped in front of him, unlike the others, yet his solemnity was tantamount to a Kaepernick moment for McCain and others.
Earth to McCain: look around the stands when the National Anthem is played at a sporting event. Some people place their hand over their heart, some don’t; some people sing, some don’t; some people salute, some don’t; some people take a knee, some don’t.
But Meghan McCain is having none of that, none of the freedom that the Anthem and the flag actually represent, none of the freedom that her father fought for. No, she directs Tim Ryan, with lots of exclamation points, to honor the Anthem the way she thinks best:
How ‘bout if Ryan had flipped a Sieg Heil, McCain? Because that kind of blind but mandated allegiance is what you’re suggesting: there is only one way, your way, to show one’s patriotism, which is the mindset of authoritarian regimes, from Hitler to Kim. Still, I have no doubt Fox, Trump, and the entire GOP will fall in line with McCain, and criticize Ryan for simply standing still—the way most of us learned.
You want to put your hand over your heart, Meghan McCain, go ahead. But I and others here served in that same conflict with your dad, and the idea we were supposedly defending, this thing called democracy, is not nurtured or protected by hand gestures, lapel pins, or car magnets.
And if you’re going to anoint the Anthem with reverence that we should pray to in only one way, maybe you shouldn’t disrespect the song and spell it right: Star-Spangled Banner.