Is it Okay to Fly Your Flag Upside Down?

With the farce conviction of President Trump, tension in America rose to a serious simmer this past week. Even people on the Left saw through the political lawfare and election interference and started calling it out. Almost immediately, images of upside-down flags appeared on social media and in neighborhoods.

(Watch / listen to this Substack piece here:)

Those unfamiliar with U.S. Code on the subject immediately interpreted these displays as being disrespectful to the flag. I wish I remembered who posted it, but on X/Twitter I read something like, "To all the leftists complaining about the upside-down flag, since when did you start caring about the American flag?"  

For those who don’t know, it is not disrespectful nor illegal in our Republic to fly a U.S. flag upside-down.

United States Code Title 36, Chapter 10, §176 (a) reads as follows:

The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.

Think. People are now flying flags upside-down to signal that the country is in extreme danger. They believe, with substantial evidence to support them, that Marxists have taken over critical functions of our government, thus putting at risk our system of government and our way of life.

Many adhering to the left side of the aisle disagree. They say the flag should be flown upside down only when life-threatening urgencies exist, meaning that “extreme danger to life or property” applies only to events such as a sinking ship or a terror attack.

Ask anyone who’s been on a sinking ship or in the middle of a mass shooting. You’ll find that people were much more concerned about saving their lives than thinking about turning their flags upside down.

Besides, many on the left were flying their flags upside down when Donald Trump got elected in 2016.

Our judicial branch can no longer be trusted

In Trump’s trial, the judge issued rules to the jury that violated the “reasonable doubt” standard. By this judge’s order, and other judges setting up sham trials, it is now accurate to say our judicial system has run amok, and people are right to believe the country is now in a time of dire distress. The steady influx of Marxism into our government finally overflowed to the point that Americans now know the judicial branch of our government can no longer be trusted.

Therefore, flying flags upside down to signal extreme danger to life or property is quite appropriate.

At question: THEN WHAT?

I remember seeing through the lies and deception behind the push for Barry Soetoro (commonly known as Barack Obama) to become President. Multiple reasons exist for why he was not qualified to hold that office, but that’s a topic for a different time. Suffice it to say that on the day after Soetoro won the Presidency, I realized our Republican form of government, as detailed in the Constitution, was in distress. I went outside to where my flag flies and tuned it upside-down.

A few people understood what I was doing. Most did not.

In the end, it didn’t matter. Conservatives and Marxists continued to bicker and Congress played kick the can, going through a lot of motions but accomplishing nothing.

What mattered was local action. Barry Soetoro was mocked by many for being a “community organizer,” but he knew what he was doing.

Ask yourself: “Why would someone with an ego the size of Gibraltar work as a lowly community organizer?” 

Answer: “Because all politics are local.”

Ideological wars at the local level

Marxists figured out that to win in America, they needed control of state Democrat parties. People who head up state parties are elected by regional chairs within their state, and those folks are elected by people who represent each precinct. Those at the precinct level are commonly called ‘Precinct Committeemen,’ or ‘PCs.’ The position is unpaid, but PCs provide the heart of each state’s political party.

In case you don’t know, Democrat voters vote only for Democrat PCs; Republican voters vote only for Republican PCs.

Soetoro and many like him went to local communities, found radical leftists and Marxists, and taught them how to get elected as Democrat PCs. From there, Marxist/leftist PCs elected Marxists/leftist Democrat regional chairs, and then they all voted in Marxist/leftist Democrat state chairs. With that, the Democrat party in this nation moved decidedly left.

Ten years later, conservatives figured out what was going on started getting constitutionalists elected to Republican PC positions. When people wonder why the parties are so divided now, this is the reason.

Soetoro pushed legislative districts to the left. Conservatives are pushing districts back toward the Constitution. If you’re my age, you might remember House Speaker Tip O’Neil (Speaker of the House from 1977 – 1987) saying, “All politics are local.” He was talking about the importance of the PC position. We see that playing out now in states where millions of dollars are spent to elect the “right people” into these non-paying PC positions.

Make a difference by engaging

So yes, people are rightly concerned about the danger our country is in, and their logic is solid when they choose to fly their flag upside-down.

However, as I learned in 2008, flying an inverted flag is akin to typing, “He ought to be voted out of office” on a social media post. It tells people how I feel, and yes, we need to tell people where we stand. But such actions do little to impact our country.

If we’re truly going to effect change, we need to be involved at the local level. True grassroots movements can succeed when a number of people rowing in the same direction do so with organized coordination. That happens by attending monthly party committee meetings. That happens when we knock on our neighbors’ doors and talk with them about issues that align with our Constitution.

All politics are local. Flying my flag makes a statement, but it does little to affect anything.

Don’t misunderstand. In our present danger, I’m okay with everyone flying their flags upside-down. But don’t stop there. Attend the boring meetings. Knock on doors and talk with neighbors. Make a difference by engaging with your local system.

As Benjamin Franklin said, “It’s a Republic – if you can keep it.”

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© 2024 Shadowtrail Media, LLC
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Daniel Bobinski, Th.D., is an international bestselling author, a certified behavioral analyst, and for 35 years he’s been a corporate trainer and executive coach. In 2019, before the dreaded virus, he began writing for UncoverDC and RedState. He now hosts his own TV show, Keep the Republic, on Brighteon.TV and does a regular podcast with Ambassador Alan Keyes, called “After Hours with Bobinski and Keyes.”

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