Problems with Idaho's new flag ban

Messages on a flag pole and the servicing of political theater

The POW/MIA flag happens to be one of the flags given special permission to continue to fly at state and local government properties in Idaho, and I have a problem with that. You’d wonder if my issue with the flag has to do with the fact that it is an ugly black flag. That is as good a reason to cite as any — ISIS, Al Qaeda, and pirates all use black flags — but that’s not it.

The issue with the POW/MIA flag is that it is state sanctioned political theater in the guise of patriotism that gives cover for America’s continued involvement in endless foreign wars and the politicians who keep us there. It also is the reason we’re having a debate about the display of the gay pride flag, the target of Idaho’s new law preventing the display of flags unless they’re authorized.

The POW/MIA flag itself comes from a rather small nonprofit organization you’ve never heard of called the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia. The group’s stated purpose is the location and repatriation of missing U.S. servicemen and their remains, certainly a worthy mission.

In 1971, the league came up with the flag, and less than two decades later, Congress authorized its display, with some cities and states following suit. Idaho’s POW/MIA law passed in 2011. The vote was unanimous.

Politicians write such legislation and vote for it because it makes them feel and look good while avoiding more serious discussion. Hoisting a flag over a government building doesn’t free a single prisoner of war. It doesn’t help locate soldiers missing in action.

Some argue that it increases the visibility of the issue, but that’s nonsense. In the last three decades, I can’t think of a single instance wherein discussions about servicemen missing in action or held prisoner have ramped up or become a part of any common discussion anywhere. At the state level, the most anyone is saying about POWs or MIAs has to do entirely with flag decorum, not whether the state national guard troops should be deployed to foreign countries.

The POW/MIA flag’s purpose is simply to make a political statement, and the only beneficiaries are the politicians making it. Meanwhile, our governments (state and federal) continue to send men and women overseas into foreign combat zones, thus increasing the likelihood that POWs and MIAs will remain an American concern for generations to come.

Photo by Rei Gunn on Unsplash

Last legislative session, Idaho (and other states) worked on legislation to ban the gay pride flag from being flown on government property. But the reason the gay pride flag even became a controversy started with the allowance of political messaging on a flag pole, and the first of these was the POW/MIA flag.

Historically, flags flown at capitols or city halls have been used to denote political or military territory or national affiliation. Only recently have flags become a vehicle for government political messaging.

As with the POW/MIA flags, cities and states display the gay pride flag because it serves their political interests to do so, not because they think it makes them more inclusive or inviting, although that’s the reason they give.

When Boise Mayor Lauren McLean recently decided to ignore Idaho’s new law banning government display of the gay pride flag, do you think she did that solely because she believes deep down inside her that the flag needs to be maintained at City Hall? Or is there just a little tiny bit of her being that is motivated to act because thinks it will benefit her politically?

And it’s the latter part that is especially infuriating. This is what public policy is often about, the maintenance and amplification of political theater and little more. The flag debate is but the latest example of this.

Government would do well to use law for simply and exclusively for the boring purpose of protecting life, liberty, and property, not for creating new methods to advance political ideologies, messaging, or causes of any kind.

More problems with Idaho’s new flag law for paid subscribers below: