As per usual, our nation’s finest president, President Donald Trump just continues to knock it out of the park. His latest controversial deed, an Executive Order issued yesterday, is to say that he wants to criminalize flag burning. This really isn’t up for debate: flag burning should be illegal, punishable at the federal felony level.
It’s like that one episode of The Simpsons. There are flag burners with way too much freedom. I want to make it legal for policemen to beat them and, apparently, so does Trump. There are those who are saying that Trump can’t do this. True, alone he can’t, but he can still get it done.
This is something that needs to be taken care of. There are those who will crap their diapers and whine about the precious First Amendment. I really don’t think that the original intent of the amendment was to protect flag burning, a vile and hateful act.
Flag burning should absolutely become illegal and, as I said, should become a federal felony. The punishment? A mandatory five-year federal prison sentence with absolutely no possibility of parole nor any other form of early release.
Make an example out of just one person and watch the flag burning come to a complete halt. I don’t care who the flag burner is, nor how old they are. Treat them all the same: hard time for half a decade.
I would never even consider burning our flag. Too many people have given their lives in defense of that flag and burning it would be like spitting in their faces. We can’t let that happen, and the only way to deal with this scourge is to make it an extremely serious crime.
Along with a mandatory five-year prison sentence, there should be substantial fines and a convicted flag burner should be permanently barred from the following things, all of which would be in effect for the rest of the person’s life:
- Unemployment benefits.
- Federal, state and private student loans.
- Any and all forms of governmental disability benefits.
- Holding a driver’s license.
- Holding any and all forms of professional and business licenses. Any such thing in effect at the time would be invalidated and the person would, going forward, be barred from obtaining such licenses.
- Owning a vehicle.
- Seizure of any tax refunds, with the proceeds to be used towards manufacturing more American flags.
- Placement on a newly-created registry, much like a sex offender database. This information would be available to all in the hopes that potential employers will check that database and refuse to hire a flag burner. Those of us who love our country should know who amongst us is a flag burner.
- Voting in any election, whether local, county, state or federal.
- SSDI and SSI.
- Social Security retirement benefits.
- Any form of public assistance, including, but not limited to SNAP (food stamps), cash assistance, Section 8 and even WIC.
- Having children. Any children born to a flag burning mother or father would be immediately surrendered to child welfare authorities and offered up for adoption. This would require a mandatory criminal background check at the hospital.
- Owning any form of weapon, including knives, firearms and pepper spray.
- Permanent loss of all constitutional protections, including Fourth Amendment rights, allowing law enforcement to search their person or property with no reason whatsoever for the rest of their lives. Treat them just like a violent felon.
I think that those penalties would deter a potential flag burner from offending our country in such a fashion. There can be no compassion nor forgiveness for a flag burning scumbag.
Burning our flag serves no useful purpose and is an aggressive and hostile act against our nation. We should start treating it as such. There is no valid excuse for burning our flag and Trump seems to be the guy who, one way or another, can make it happen.