Bizarre, Free Speech, Media, Politics

American University Students Protest Election By Burning American Flag

american_university_seal-svgProtesters around the country have taken to the street in opposition to the decision of millions of their fellow Americans to elect Donald Trump. While his was a fair and free election, the results are clearly unacceptable to the protesters who seem to advocate democratic choice so long as it is their choice.
Some shouted “F–k white America!” I discussed the issue last night on Megyn Kelly on Fox News. (For interview, click here)


Hundreds of students gathered on campus to protest the results. Clearly this is an exercise of free speech, including the burning of the American flag. There is a difference however between protected speech and good speech. The flag speaks to rights not results. Burning the flag is not just hateful but ignorant of its meaning. It represents the promise of democratic change in our society. There are no guarantees that you will prevail . . . only that you have the right compete.

It is not clear what the protesters are demanding. They clearly want to denounce Trump but he is facially the legitimate President elect. More importantly, there is no reason to blame the system or destroy its symbol of the flag merely because your neighbors had the audacity of elect someone with whom you disagree.

161 thoughts on “American University Students Protest Election By Burning American Flag”

      1. Arnie – I subscribe to one environmental group and they are already asking for money.

        1. They do receive more contributions when republicans are in power. With Trump’s talk of getting rid of the EPA contributions should soar.

      2. The person most responsible for invigorating the environmental movement in modern times is James G. Watt. Will history be repeated?

  2. The media made sure that we all knew about Trump’s racism. That his followers hated latinos and blacks. This was why they all said the GOP became the “white person’s party”. But the media ignored the message coming out of the Progressive Democrats. Its message is “the white race is over! Now, we’ll scrutinize every privilege it gets for being white, and MAKE SURE it is fairly distributed from now on.”
    So that’s not RACISM?

        1. People protested the guy who made comments about women in yoga pants. He is a private citizen.

          Hillary did far worse.

  4. Democracy is messy. Sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. When people insist that the only result that is legitimate is the one that they desired that makes for a very dangerous situation. There is already talk of impeaching Trump immediately upon inauguration. Sounds a lot like the Republican reaction to Obama’s election.

    He may not have been my choice but he was freely elected. The Democrats lost because of their choice of a candidate and their corporatist policies. . The fault lies in the DNC and Hillary.

    1. Half of the eligible voters did not vote. Another quarter voted for Clinton so Trump received a quarter of the vote. The election was not rigged and he clearly won the electoral college. People can accept that he won but they do not have to like it and he clearly has no mandate.

  5. I don’t blame the protestors. America has elected a fascist for President. Worth protesting.

    On Thu, Nov 10, 2016 at 12:03 AM, JONATHAN TURLEY wrote:

    > jonathanturley posted: “Protesters around the country have taken to the > street in opposition to the decision of millions of their fellow Americans > to elect Donald Trump. While his was a fair and free election, the results > are clearly unacceptable to the protesters who seem to ad” >

    1. Not by burning flags or garbage or by breaking windows.

      While most of the protesters around the country have been peaceful, the destructive outliers can distort the overall image to one of violent brats versus concerned adults.

  8. In the Boy Scouts, many decades ago, I learned that burning the flag was the only respectable way to dispose of it.

  12. Maybe it wouldn’t be so traumatic and shocking to all the snowflakes if the mainstream media had not misrepresented the reality of this election and actually told them the truth. It was the corrupt DNC colluding with the Clinton campaign as they worked to subvert democracy by forcing their unpalatable candidate down the voters throats, when who the voters asked for was Bernie.

    And now people are in shock and tears grieving Hillary’s loss while burning flags, rioting in the streets and threatening to kill Trump because why exactly?

    1. and then after the primaries ended, Bernie, who according to WikiLeaks had a ‘non-agression agreement’ with the Clinton campaign, went and bought himself a $600k lake front home…..huh…..funny how that worked out….

      and so now there are riots, protests, flag burnings, and death threats on Trump? where is the outrage on the corruption and collusion within the Democrat party and the Clinton campaign? funny how that works too…

      1. That $600,000 house Bernie recently bought is the third house that they own.
        They can’t live in all three at the same time; maybe he’ll open up one or two of their houses to the homeless to “share the wealth”.

        1. I’m thinking that $600k lakefront 3rd home was a little payoff deal for Bernie’s ‘non-aggression’……gotta wonder…..

      2. Just remembering…..when Hillary smeared half of Trump supporters (ie Americans) as “irredeemable deplorables” and then ends her campaign by desperately shouting how she wants to be president for everyone….and then lost the election…..good times.

    1. Egad!

      Let their safe space be a jail cell.

      Kent State stirred sympathy for the Vietnam protesters. Let’s not stir sympathy for these yahoos.

  15. Surprisingly, they were able to summon the courage to light a match without fear of self-immolation.

    What we could be witnessing is the beginning of the disintegration of the special snowflake and social justice warrior culture and lifestyle. The political movement now visible after its revelation by the election results poses an existential threat to their pathetically wimpy and decidedly cringe-worthy raisons d’être. This is something they are scared of.

    Where the militant left’s self-image of gaining ground in American Society has been upset, the SJW and Snowflake’s base of support fractured. Regular people are no longer going to tolerate this type of behavior by students.

    I maintain that these folks, thought loud and fearsome in appearance, are actually Paper Tigers. If they cannot handle someone having a different opinion, if presented with an actual challenge to their position, more than just words or some directive, they will simply fall apart and run away. Just as spoiled children cry, scream and whine when they don’t get what they want, when the parent finally puts their foot down and sends them to their room they eventually obey whether they like it or not.

  16. Children will be Children. I like the legal definition used in shooting deaths in the category child. Any under 21. but realistically using birth dates to award adult hood which means among other things capable of responsibility should be based on something more objective. Safe Spots? What’s wrong with class rooms. Burning Flags? Meaningless vandalism and proof of immaturity.

    Age is useful it seems only where Military Conscription is concerned. Even then some have it at 15 or 16 and some don’t have it at age how high do you want to go?

    Heinlein wrote about juvenile delinquency in this manner. There is no such thing. Juveniles are by definition incapable of responsibility. Not being delinquent in duty one of the forms being responsible is an adult not a child trait. He ended with…for every juvenile miscreant there is an irresponsible adult delinquent.

    But he also pointed out, as a nation, we treat our dogs better than we treat our children.

    After seven decades of looking arond five and half or so after reading those words I can only agree.

  17. This is the inevitable result of decades and decades of repulsive, leftist, anti-American gutter tripe holding important “teaching” positions in America’s colleges and universities, indoctrinating generation after generation of vacuous, immature twits with the same leftist gutter sheis.

  19. They are just proto-fascists. They try to intimidate people to get their way. That’s all that BLM is. The Left has created a Frankenstein, and if we are lucky it will destroy them first.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

  20. Wait. You mean they are not respecting the election results? Didn’t they just roundly condemn Trump when he said he’d have to wait and see what happened?

    More and more, I have felt that the Left believes we live in a single party state. No matter what Republican is running, they are a bigot/racist/stupid, as well as anyone who votes for them.

    This is protected free speech. And it also feels like voter intimidation. There are threats of violence, secession, riots. Vote our way or else. What are they, the brown shirts?

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