Post-Election, One College Will Not Fly U.S. Flag

The war on the American flag began long before Donald Trump announced his run for president, but a small liberal arts college in Massachusetts has gone farther than any other school to date. Hampshire College announced last Friday that they would no longer fly the Stars and Stripes after they botched an attempt to use the flag as a political protest statement.

The trouble started on the day after Trump was elected. Hampshire College lowered the flag to half-mast, though they now claim that it had nothing to do with Trump defeating Hillary Clinton.

“Some have perceived the action of lowering the flag as a commentary on the results of the presidential election – this, unequivocally, was not our intent,” said college president Jonathan Lash in a statement.

Of course not. Who could perceive such a thing?

According to Lash, the decision to lower the flag was based on other factors.

“Last week, in the current environment of escalating hate-based violence, we made the decision to fly Hampshire’s U.S. flag at half-staff for a time while the community delved deeper into the meaning of the flag and its presence on our campus. This was meant as an expression of grief over the violent deaths being suffered in this country and globally, including the many U.S. service members who have lost their lives,” Lash said.

The backlash was swift. Conservatives and veterans expressed their outrage, telling Hampshire officials that lowering the flag for political reasons was unacceptable and disrespectful.

Instead of simply acknowledging their actions as a mistake, Hampshire responded like a child being scolded by their parents.

“We decided on Friday that we will not fly the U.S. flag or any other flags on our college flagpole for the time being,” Lash said. “We hope this will enable us in the near term to instead focus our efforts on addressing racist, misogynistic, Islamophobic, anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic, and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and behaviors.”

Well, let’s put it this way. If you can’t address those topics under the American flag, then maybe there’s something messed up about the way you’re talking about those topics. In the meantime, keep it up. Let the world know that the left in this country is so extreme that its followers see the U.S. flag as a symbol of hate. We’ll be over here, watching your ideology die.