"It's become clear that the flag has been used for some
really awful causes, most notably the Jan. 6 insurrection
at the U.S. Capitol," said Rachel Carroll Rivas, deputy
director of research and analysis for the Intelligence Project
at the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The American flag was used by the rioters at the Capitol, too. Is that now an
off-limits hate symbol that should be banned from public use, Rachel?

-----------------------------------

https://www.npr.org/2022/08/10/1116523396/florida-dont-tread-on-me-license-plate-ron-desantis

When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently tweeted an image of a new state
license plate featuring a coiled rattlesnake and the words "Don't Tread on
Me", he said it sends a "clear message to out-of-state cars".

The imagery of the Revolutionary War-era Gadsden flag dates to Benjamin
Franklin but has, for many, come to symbolize a far-right extremist ideology
and the "Stop the Steal" movement that sought to overturn the 2020
presidential election results.

"'Love, love, love' Florida Gov. DeSantis new license plate; 'Don't Tread on
Me!'" one Twitter user said. "This is how we feel about our great country,
that is right now being systematically destroyed by the radical Left."

Such plates have gotten pushback, not only in Florida, but in states such as
Kansas, Missouri and Virginia, where similar plates have been available, in
some cases for years, as fundraising tools for various organizations.

"The state can't claim a lack of knowledge about what this image represents to
most of the public," says Rachel Carroll Rivas, deputy director of research
and analysis for the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center.
She says it's become clear that the flag has been used for some "really awful"
causes, most notably the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Carroll Rivas compares it to a similar controversy over the use of the
Confederate "stars and bars" flag on license plates. In 2009, the group
Confederate Veterans, Inc., requested the flag on a specialty license plate,
but Texas refused. The veterans group sued, and the case ultimately went to
the Supreme Court. In 2015, in a 5-4 decision, the court held that such
specialty plates (not to be confused with "vanity plates") were government
speech and therefore states have the right to pick and choose what goes on
them.

Benjamin Franklin was the first to use the rattlesnake as a symbol of defiance
against the British crown, says Marc Leepson, a journalist, historian and
author of Flag: An American Biography. In 1775, Christopher Gadsden, a South
Carolina politician, "took that menacing rattle rattlesnake and put it on the
flag," Leepson says. "One thing we can say about its origins, regardless of
how it's used or who uses it or why it's used today, is that it really was
just completely an anti-British [and] anti-colonial symbol," he says.

The journalist Rob Walker, writing in The New Yorker in 2016, said, "The
Gadsden design remained something of a Revolutionary relic for many years."
However, "[by] the 1970s, it had some popularity in Libertarian circles, as a
symbol of ideological enthusiasm for minimal government and the rights of
individuals."

Then came the Tea Party movement, which adopted the banner in 2010 as a sort
of catch-all symbol of disgust with government. Since then, it has gone on to
become a symbol for anti-government groups and individuals.

Extreme or not, 1st Amendment scholars such as Eugene Volokh of the UCLA
School of Law say the Gadsden flag and the "Don't Tread on Me" motto are
legitimate-- and protected-- speech, whether they are on a flag waving inside
the besieged U.S. Capitol or on a vehicle license plate heading down a Florida
highway.

"We know that some people are upset by that slogan," Volokh says. But, "the
government is perfectly entitled to take controversial stands or in this case
stands that have become newly controversial because some very small group of
people have ended up using a symbol for purposes that are very different" from
what it originally signified.

Other political and potentially controversial slogans routinely appear on
license plates across the country, says Matt Dallek, a political historian at
George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management.

"I've seen some 'Live free or die' license plates in New Hampshire, which of
course has been the state motto for decades," Dallek says. "You could argue
that that certainly is a political statement with a fairly strong libertarian
streak." District of Columbia plates, which have long sported an iteration of
the Colonial-era rallying cry "No taxation without representation" are also in
that vein, he says. "But I think that 'Don't Tread on Me' has different, more
extreme connotations, and therefore is more political and certainly is much
more politicized," Dallek adds.

Politicized plates are available for other hot-button issues, as well. For
example, "Trust Women/Respect Choice" is an option in Virginia, just as
"Choose Life" is available on plates in Nebraska.

In the states where "Don't Tread on Me" plates have been introduced, they
appear to be top sellers. And that's good news for the Florida Veterans
Foundation, a veterans' advocacy group that stands to get $25 per Gadsden flag
license plate. But it hasn't been an easy road, says Chairman Dennis Baker.
The choice of the Gadsden flag was made not by the group, but by a lawmaker
pushing for the fundraising plate in 2019. "I think it was because other
states were having such good success with it," he says.

He says the money the foundation hoped to raise could go a long way toward
helping Florida veterans. "Then January 6th happened and it was like, 'Oh,
s***.'" By then it was too late, because Florida's legislature had already
approved the design.

Baker explains that a minimum threshold of 3,000 plates must be preordered
before the state will begin producing them. The Gadsden plate approved for the
foundation had been languishing, but got a sudden boost after Gov. DeSantis'
tweet last month. "I'm sure there's going to be at least a million people" who
will now order one, says Baker. "I'm thinking there's that many people in
Florida who would like to have the plate."

While Florida introduced the plate design in 2019, Virginia and Missouri did
so a decade ago. Kansas approved the "Don't Tread on Me" plates only weeks
after the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection, when television images of rioters waving
the flag were still fresh.

Democrat Dinah Sykes, minority leader in the Kansas Senate, opposed the
measure when it came up for a vote in March of last year. "Whatever the
original symbology of [the Gadsden flag] was ... I think a lot of people would
argue that it's become a symbol of the people who marched on the Capitol," she
says.

The plate design, meant to raise funds for the Kansas State Rifle Association,
was subsequently vetoed by Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, before the
Republican-controlled legislature overrode it.

"I don't think it's appropriate," says Sykes, who is the Kansas Senate
minority leader. "When I see that, whether it's a flag or a license plate ...
it's not a good feeling for me."

On 8/26/2022 11:49 PM, BTR1701 wrote:
> "It's become clear that the flag has been used for some
> really awful causes, most notably the Jan. 6 insurrection
> at the U.S. Capitol," said Rachel Carroll Rivas, deputy
> director of research and analysis for the Intelligence Project
> at the Southern Poverty Law Center.
>
> The American flag was used by the rioters at the Capitol, too. Is that now an
> off-limits hate symbol that should be banned from public use, Rachel?
>
> -----------------------------------
>
> https://www.npr.org/2022/08/10/1116523396/florida-dont-tread-on-me-license-plate-ron-desantis

George Orwell predicted all of this. There is a point in 1984 where
Winston Smith thinks the symbol of the new govt. should be a boot
stamping on a human face. That's the GQP in a nutshell. And simpering,
cowering eunuchs such as yourself seem to be proud of this fact. The
Oath Keepers have taught you well!