You’re a grand old pin
You’re a star-spangled pin
And forever you’ve graced my lapel
You’re against the rules
But that’s for fools
My bosses can all go to hell
Call the Fox News Crew
For the Red, White, and Blue
Let the thumping of chests begin!
Should equal treatment be forgot,
Keep your eye on the grand old pin

You’re a grand old pin
You’re a patriot’s pin
And I wear you for others to see
Though the rule applies
To other guys
They’ll make an exception for me!
Sing it loud and true
It’s the Red White, and Blue!
Where majority view should win
Should equal treatment be forgot,
Keep your eye on the grand old pin

Context and rant, after the jump:

In my daily emails today, my copy of the GOPUSA Eagle (I have no idea how I got on that mailing list), with their own brand of propaganda. It’s good for a laugh sometimes, and at other times it’s good for a cry. Today, their first story was about a “man fired for wearing American flag pin to work”. The company has a dress code which prohibits pins of any sort, and the man’s flag pin (which he had been wearing for 2 years at the job) was in violation. He was asked to remove it or go home, and chose to go home. Accounts start to vary here–apparently he wore it to work again the following day and was given the same decision. Now he has been fired.

The comment threads at the various news sites are a gold mine. The flag-wearing patriots also tend to be those who support a business owner’s right to have and enforce dress codes, and to fire employees for failing to meet them. So while the majorities on the right-wing sites are rallying ’round the pin, there are a surprising number of commenters noting that the business is well within its rights.

And there are wingnuts. One comment notes that the owners are within their rights… and then suggests that if the hotel should catch fire, the fire trucks should drive slowly and carefully to be sure no one gets hurt. Others suggest that the hotel must be owned by Muslims, or by Mexicans, or that it’s all Obama’s fault. Had it been a Mexican flag, he would not have been asked to remove it. Had it been a Star of David, ditto. It’s all the fault of the ACLU. We are living in End Times. Impeach Obama!

Actually, their reactions remind me tremendously of the firestorm over Jessica Ahlquist. People in a position of privilege (Christian privilege or patriotic privilege, in the two separate cases) think that not having a special exception made for their special view is the same thing as having the government endorse a polar opposite view. Treating the flag pin like every other pin is not just equal-handed, it’s anti-American (because everyone knows that all True Americans wear flag pins