GOP wants us to ignore the Alito flag flap
If there’s one thing we know for certain it’s that conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s wife loves flags.
Absolutely adores the things, apparently. She’s the one he pointed the finger at after The New York Times reported on an upside-down American flag – a sign of distress co-opted by Jan. 6 insurrectionists – hanging outside the justice’s home following the attack on the U.S. Capitol in 2021.
Alito said his wife also hung an “Appeal to Heaven” flag – another symbol co-opted by Jan. 6 rioters and Christian nationalists – outside their New Jersey vacation home.
‘My wife is fond of flying flags’ is Alito’s excuse for a pro-insurrection symbol
After Democratic lawmakers called on Justice Alito to recuse himself from cases involving the Jan. 6 insurrection, he wrote: “My wife is fond of flying flags. I am not.
“My wife was solely responsible for having flagpoles put up at our residence and our vacation home and has flown a wide variety of flags over the years.”
Cool! Aside from hoping Martha-Ann Alito also is fond of the bottom of the bus her husband threw her under, I wonder if conservative supporters of Alito’s flag-losophy would be equally just fine with other Supreme Court justices hoisting flags of their own?
Would it be OK for a liberal justice to fly a Black Lives Matter flag?
Say, for example, a Fox News reporter noticed a Black Lives Matter flag flying outside liberal Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s home.
I assume folks at that network as well as social-media-thirsty Republicans like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Sen. J.D. Vance and convicted felon/ presidential candidate Donald Trump would be just fine with that, right?
They’d utter nary a peep. After all, we must respect our right to bear flags.
And if anyone on the right did take issue with it and Jackson explained her husband is a big fan of flags and he’s the one who put it up, that would make everything OK, scandal-wise, right?
How about a Puerto Rican flag symbolizing resistance?
Suppose liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, whose parents were from Puerto Rico, had a black Puerto Rican flag – a symbol of resistance and grief – flying outside her vacation home. That’d be all good, right?
And maybe someone reported on it and she explained that a family member staying with her had put it up and, like Alito with his wife, she just couldn’t get the relative to take it down.
I’m sure Fox News would be cool as a cucumber about a story like that.
An upside-down US flag in a liberal justice’s yard?
The right would be up in arms.
Let’s use a hypothetical that’s more direct: It’s 2016 and Trump was just elected president. A neighbor shows a New York Times reporter a photo of an upside-down American flag flying outside the home of liberal Justice Elena Kagan.
Radical liberal groups across America had recently adopted the upsidedown American flag to express their violent opposition to the new president.
Would Republicans let that one go without batting an eye?
Would the right-wing media ecosystem calmly roll its eyes and move on?
No, everyone on the right would be apoplectic. Fox News headquarters would spontaneously combust from the ensuing rage.
But with Alito and his insurrectioncurious wife and her unflagging flag enthusiasm, it’s no biggie.
Alito’s flags represent a dark undercurrent in politics
After the flag stories broke, Democratic senators asked Chief Justice John Roberts to meet with them to discuss the scandal.
Roberts said no. Nothing to see here. But there’s definitely something to see here, folks.
And if a liberal justice were raising ideological flags of any sort, Republicans would surely see the problem clear as day.