Blowhard

Back in August, the President signed an Executive Order that purports to criminalize burning the American flag... Or so some media outlets would have one believe.

Reading the actual text of the Executive Order tends to belie the President's assertion that “We took the freedom of speech away.” Mainly because it's little more than an instruction to Attorney General Bondi to find existing laws that can be used to prosecute people who happened to have burned a flag while they were up to something else.

My Administration will act to restore respect and sanctity to the American Flag and prosecute those who incite violence or otherwise violate our laws while desecrating this symbol of our country, to the fullest extent permissible under any available authority.

The President is, however, fairly clearly hoping that a case can be brought to the Supreme Court. Texas v. Gregory L. Johnson was decided 5 to 4 back in 1989, and one doesn't have to read much into the Order to understand that he's hoping the current 6 justice Conservative majority will reverse the earlier precedent. 

(c)  To the maximum extent permitted by the Constitution, the Attorney General shall vigorously prosecute those who violate our laws in ways that involve desecrating the American Flag, and may pursue litigation to clarify the scope of the First Amendment exceptions in this area.

This likely means that the Justice Department will start looking for some or another Red state to prosecute someone specifically for burning the flag. After all, a conviction for some other violation wouldn't provide the requisite go-ahead to ban flag burning as an act of protest in and of itself.

For me, the real problem with all of this is that it's the President, once again, going after random Culture War grievances rather than solving any sort of real problem. While sure, I suspect there are people whose biggest concern is that some random left-wing protestor won't spend enough time in jail to make them love the United States again, most of the nation has bigger fish to fry, and this Executive Order offers no help for them. The flap over the whole thing, generally from left-leaning media outlets, obscures that fact.

One can make the case, though, that President Trump has actually been quite clever. He's given people something to get worked up about. Conservatives can cheer for what they hope will happen to protestors that they don't like, and Liberals can overreact to the President's bloviating (which is easier than reading the actual executive order). And the media on both sides can encourage them. It's the worst kind of win-win.