The flags people choose to fly can say a lot about a person. And for Speaker Mike Johnson, the flag outside his office has more than a few liberals up in arms (not literally, that would imply that they appreciate our Second Amendment).
As the Rolling Stone magazine recently reported on, Johnson, in addition to the customary and traditional US flag, also flies the Pine Tree flag, aptly named for the single green pine tree at its center. It is also known as the “Appeal to Heaven” flag, as it also says this at the top.
To anyone familiar with the flag, you know that it was a flag commissioned by none other than our nation’s first president, George Washington, then General of the Continental Army and future signer of the Articles of Confederation. It was designed by his aide-de-camp Joseph Reed in 1775 while he was a lieutenant colonel under Washington.
It symbolized the colony’s defiance of British rule, which had largely wiped out the New England white pine. Naturally, its phrasing at the top was a call for Heaven’s favor on the colonies.
And yet, to Rolling Stone authors Bradley Onishi and Matthew Taylor, the flag showcases nothing but Johnson’s “Christian Extremism.” As they wrote, the flag now “leads into a universe of right-wing religious extremism” as it has become a symbol of “a die-hard vision of a hegemonically Christian America” in the past decade.
Why?
Well, you may not have known it, but there were a few Pine Tree flags flown by January 6 “insurrectionists.”
So, predictably, the liberal left has now labeled the flag as some sort of evil. And since Johnson flies it, it must mean he supports “insurrection and violence” as well as religious extremism.
Mike Johnson, second in line to the presidency, flies a symbol of insurrection and violence outside his office. It is a window into his religious extremism. @TaylorMatthewD and I wrote about it for @RollingStone:https://t.co/sQqmZuYHS7
— Bradley Onishi (@BradleyOnishi) November 10, 2023
Thankfully, most on social media aren’t buying this rhetoric.
Lol. These people: “Historically” it’s awesome and wholesome and thoroughly American. But “in the last decade” we say it’s poison! https://t.co/Std4UtUPUi pic.twitter.com/3t6BnlIGr8
— Matt Mehan (@MTMehan) November 16, 2023
