As President Donald Trump’s Saturday military parade approaches and the Los Angeles riots continue to rage, Democratic Reps. Pat Ryan of New York and Chris Deluzio of Pennsylvania passed out miniature American flags — in an apparent attempt to reclaim patriotism for the party.
Around the same time the two House Democrats gave out the flags to their colleagues, security officers forcibly removed Democratic California Sen. Alex Padilla for interrupting Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a press conference while blasting Trump’s use of National Guard troops to crack down on the violent anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) riots in Los Angeles, Politico reported. These riots, which some Democrats have downplayed, have included the waving of Mexican flags in American streets and the burning of American flags by protestors.
The lawmakers’ message accompanying the 4-by-6-inch flags in a Dear Colleague letter was that “Patriotism does not belong to one party … The flag, and the values it stands for, belong to every single American.”
This attempt to reclaim the American flag and patriotism as a party comes at a very apt time, according to Ryan. The Republican Party’s “definition of patriotism, is, ‘Do you support Trump and MAGA?’ And if you don’t, then you’re not patriotic,” he said.
Ryan and Deluzio’s House Democratic Caucus colleague Democratic California Rep. Maxine Waters has notably come under scrutiny for first denying violence was taking place at the riots, and then blaming Trump for it.
“Nobody was shot, nobody was killed. Get it through your head,” Waters said on Tuesday. “There was no violence. I was on the street.”
In recent months, the Democratic Party has struggled with voter support and party agreement. A recent poll suggests that many within the party are worried in the wake of the 2024 election, with only a third of Democrats optimistic about their party’s future.
In April, Democratic Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, admitted that the perception of the Democrat party is “weak and woke,” and said the party’s plan must be to “fucking retake the flag” and apply “goddamn Alpha energy,” according to Politico.
Applying that advice, Democrats are now appearing to lean into a more patriotic image, Politico reported.
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