by Marcus Howley ’28 on October 1, 2026
Opinion
The American flag is an ever-present symbol anywhere you go across the country. The stars and stripes are flying on every block in a city and down every Main Street in a small town. It’s hard to miss the red, white, and blue no matter where you are. Francis Scott Key captured this feeling in a letter to a friend about the siege of Baltimore by the British during the War of 1812, writing, “Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.” The iconic line and letter became the National Anthem. Yet, just like at Fort McHenry, over the last several years, our flag has faced a new challenge.
To begin to contextualize why I have decided to write about this long-standing issue within American society, we must first go across the pond to Europe to look at two recent cases on the continent. Recently, German head soccer coach Jürgen Klopp made a political statement by wearing a hat that said “one of 83 million,” featuring the Adidas logo in the colors of the German flag. The hat comes as a direct response to the recent regional victory of the Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland), or AfD, in the Eastern region of Saxony-Anhalt. The AfD became the first far-right political party to win a German region since the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or Nazi Party won in that same region. Klopp is, of course, making a statement about the belonging of all people within Germany, saying that all people should be able to wave the German flag without connotations of far-right nationalism and that the German people should be careful not to let national symbols fall into the hands of such groups.
England saw a similar situation with the flag during the recent anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim activities surrounding Operation Raise the Colours, organized by prominent members of the English far-right. This saw supporters vandalizing public spaces, immigrant businesses, and homes with images of the English flag and St. George’s cross. During this period, and even still now, the English flag has become associated with hooliganism and racially motivated violence and intolerance within the country.
It is a very common theme for far-right nationalist movements to co-opt national symbols as their own. This is an effective strategy for these groups, as it allows them to present themselves as some kind of national vision or as the “true patriots” who uphold the country. This also has the effect of branding anyone who opposes them, and in particular, leftist movements, as being opposed to the country as a whole or against the values of that nation. The more concerning aspect is that it allows these groups to decide who belongs. Typically, those visions of who belongs include only those of a certain ethnic group, race, or religion, excluding those who are immigrants or fall outside of their vision. It is of the utmost importance that we do not allow those who hold white supremacist and fascist ideologies to seize control of our national symbols.
In the United States, the battle over who takes ownership over national symbols has been raging since at least the 2010s. Far-right and conservative movements, like the MAGA movement, have attempted to take ownership of the U.S. flag and other symbols, like the bald eagle. Control of these symbols allows the Christian nationalist agenda that is embedded within American conservatism to begin deciding who belongs and who doesn’t. This exclusion targets immigrants, Muslims, LGBTQ+ people, and other vulnerable communities who do not fit within their narrow definition of what it means to be a “true American.” We should not let the flag of one’s own country signify a political affiliation or strike fear in those who are most targeted. It is of the utmost importance for us as a nation to fight back against the claiming of the flag. The flag flies for each and every person who calls this nation home. As George Fredrick Root once said in his famous song “The Battle Cry of Freedom,” “Yes we’ll rally round the flag, boys, we’ll rally once again, / Shouting the battle cry of freedom!” It is time for us, too, as a nation, to rally around the flag as a symbol that belongs to us all.