Anyone who burns American flag should be jailed or lose citizenship

https://mobile.twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/803567993036754944

The actual Tweet was " Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag-if they do there must be consequences-perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!"

POTUS Elect Trump tweeted the above regarding American flag burning. So what was his purpose to do this?

- throw some nice bloody red meat at the base
- throw up a trap to catch the craziest of the left wing in a challenge to go out and burn the flag so that the craziest of the right wing can chant the BS mantra that this is how all of the left behaves
- Trump throwing up crap even though he knows that what he proposes in currently unconstitutional
- just Trump throwing up crap as a cover in case he picks Romney for Secof State

My thoughts are at two diferrent levels one emotional and that level I would jail the person and take away their citizenship IF they are a Naturalized Citizen. I say that because as a Naturalized Citizen I officially became an American by choice. Any Naturalized who burns an American flag does not deserve the privilege of being an American. I feel that a Naturalized Citizen who burns our flag throws a horrific stain on all of us Naturalized citizens and I do not want you to be considered an American if you do that.

On the intellectual level I recognize that the first amendment of the Constitution protects those dirtbags who burn our flag.

Any thoughts here about if the burning of the American flag should be punishable by jail time?

 

Sorry, but this is the United States, and the Supreme Court says otherwise.

I view flag burning as an affront as well.

But it is symbolic. I have no understanding of why some right wingers place so much emphasis on it. It will never change your life, get you more money, or help you live longer.

It's a political gesture. And no law is likely to prevent it from happening.

But Trump does know how to pander to his base!!!!!! He know that alt right will salivate on cue to a little jingoistic chest thumping.

 

For someone who has enjoyed flaunting his freedom of speech over the last year, he's real quick to want to stifle it now.

 

Interesting comment. I didn't think of it that way.

- - - Updated - - -

So you feel that it is red meat to the basest of the base!

 

What a complete and total fool. This is the idiot we have for the next four years. Early morning twitter rants from a president.

 

I should point out that he won't have time to check Twitter and comment on everyone's comments every 10 minutes after Jan. 20th.

 

Meh,...personal thought that is over exaggerated to make a point?

 

Jail time? No
Lose citizenship? No

I don't like that people choose to be insulting to Americans, especially those that served in the armed forces, by disrespecting or burning the flag. I don't like it when people don't stand for the National Anthem either. The flag and the anthem are symbols of the country and deserve our respect, even when the government does something we don't agree with.

That being said, there are much bigger problems in this country on which our President-elect needs to focus than taking on the First Amendment. He won't win this battle, much less the war.

 

The OP overlooks the possibility that Trump believes what he’s writing and is simply ignorant of the Constitutional, legal and practical issues it raises. I actually think the idea that “loss of citizenship” could work as some kind of general punishment is the worst element of the whole thing.

I fear your only hope is that he isn’t able to completely surround himself with yes-men and there will still be someone willing and able to say “You’re talking rubbish Mr President”.

 

Anyone who flies the Confederate flag should be jailed or lose their citizenship.

 

as someone who lived through the vietnam war, and with a body count of 200,000+ dead or wounded americans, for a war we should never have been in, I can't help but think it was justified of all those damn hippies to burn the american flag to demonstrate their contempt for our government... I was saddened when those same damn hippies turned on the soldiers, instead of keeping their fight with the politicians...

but I can't think of a better statement to make outside the whitehouse, than burning the flag in protest of war and americans dying and being injured... its the same reason why I've adopted my foreign policy that doesn't permit us to throw our weight around because we haven't learned our lesson about meddling in other peoples affairs yet... clearly numerous times now we haven't learned anything about the middle east either...

but I think it should be an action reserved for horrendous times, like vietnam...

once someone becomes a citizen, they are no longer a "selective citizen" that we can throw away if they don't act accordingly, thats what our justice system is for if they act out of line... you can't hang the threat of deportation after you made someone a citizen, you lock them up if a crime is that egregious against society, treat them like any other citizen, you just made them one... emotions are a poor substitute for good justice...

P.S. but I will still smile when I see someone steal the flag from those attempting to burn it, even though its technically a crime to take their property...

 

That's the mot troubling part of that.

He actually thinks the US government can take away a US born person's citizenship.

 

I smile when the catch themselves on fire in the process.


I realize that flag burning is constitutionally protected free speech, but I agree with the President-elect's inner motivations for saying what he said.

As for me, when these lowlifes burn the flag, they make their credibility a big fat zero in my eyes.

Zero.

 

He loves this country so much yet suggests stripping us of a part of the freedom that makes this country enjoyable.

 

Take the time to watch youtube compilation videos of Trump vs reporters who have been his staunchest opponents.

They all become reduced to puppy dogs, stuttering messes or pure speechless.

You guys are in for a world of hurt.

 

This is just tRump kicking up a (*)(*)(*)(*)storm to divert attention away from the train wreck of his transition team.

It's the sort of sleight-of-hand that all capable hucksters use to dazzle the stupid.

 

i think burning your country's flag is a bit worse then that
but i wonder is it allowed to walk the street with a nazi flag in the US ? if it isnt (like most countrys in the west) then i'm suprised burning the flag is allowed

 

That's actually not true. Read the first amendment.

Banning flag burning, or any other kind of speech, by executive order would not be unconstitutional.

 

Executive Orders can be overturned by the Supreme Court.

 

The way that the right carries on about this, one would think that they were wrapping themselves in it before it was burnt. The pinnacle of hypocrisy...to complain about a flag burning after voting for a complete fraud and swindler.

 

Yeah, but they wouldn't be striking down that one on the basis of the 1st amendment.

 

Wrapping the hippies in the flags being burned?? Devious.

I like it!

All Trump needs to do is make the act of kicking the ever loving (*)(*)(*)(*) out of the communists/liberals that are burning the flag a "crime" that carries a $4 fine, and we'll have ourselves a nation wide blanket party and by tomorrow I bet all these ne'er do well's will straighten right up.

Got $4?

 

Your love and boundless faith in the Federal government, putting it far above above the ideals of the founding, sounds very un-American to me. The flag is just a symbol.

 

Yes, walking the street with a Nazi flag would be allowed legally. We don't do ridiculous things here like jail people for being delusional about the holocaust either. I can't say what might happen to the person though. Emotional people might lash out.

The respect for free speech is one of the main things about America that is unusually free. It would be a violation of our own principles to ban flag burning. In a way, banning flag burning lends credibility to flag burning, because it would make us hypocritical and hypersensitive to criticism, just like Trump. I like to think Trump is just a mistake, and not an embodiment of America losing the ideals that make it special.

 

Trump is wrong. It's free speech. Move on.

Republicans, conservatives and any other Trump supporters will need to get used to NOT defending him when he says stupid things. He should've known this has already been decided. I honestly don't think he knew.