Two decades ago, an American country singer called Natalie Maines touched off a firestorm in London.
Her band, then called the Dixie Chicks, was there on a world tour as the US was beginning the invasion of Iraq.
As she and her bandmates began the song Travelin’ Soldier at Shepherd’s Bush Theatre, Maines told the crowd: “Just so you know, we’re on the good side with y’all. We do not want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.”
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The response was swift and brutal. Country music stations stopped playing their music. The hate mail flowed in from all corners of America, and the band lost promotional opportunities and sponsorship deals.
The “cancellation” of the Dixie Chicks was part of an atmosphere of hyper-patriotism that Republicans had successfully willed into existence around Bush and the Iraq invasion in the wake of the September 11 2001 terror attacks.
The GOP used the aftermath of those devastating events to redefine patriotism as a jingoistic, nationalistic virtue that required being a conservative Republican to be considered a “real” American. Bush used those feelings to win re-election, and Republicans have spent the last 20 years claiming that Democrats “hate America.”
The hyper-performative patriotism remained part-and-parcel of the GOP throughout the rise of Donald Trump and his presidency, leading Trump to claim “America First” as an alternative moniker for his “Make America Great Again” movement.
His supporters continued to claim the American flag as their own symbol, even using it to beat police officers as they sought to illegally keep Trump in office on January 6 2021.
But after this year’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago, it’s clear that Democrats are dead set on making sure those tricks won’t work anymore.
For four days, American flags and other patriotic symbols were easy to spot at the United Center, and on each day of the convention chants of “USA, USA” echoed through the arena as speaker after speaker praised America’s virtues and extolled the importance of “freedom.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, now the Democratic party’s nominee who will face off against Trump in November’s general election, has leaned into the word “freedom” as a mantra of her campaign, using Beyonce’s anthem of the same name as her walk-out music and campaign theme song.
In her acceptance speech on Thursday, she told convention-goers that “fundamental freedoms” are at stake in this year’s election, including “the freedom to live safe from gun violence—in our schools, communities, and places of worship”.
She continued: “The freedom to love who you love openly and with pride. The freedom to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and live free from the pollution that fuels the climate crisis. And the freedom that unlocks all the others: The freedom to vote.”
She also vowed to “ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world” and “fulfill our sacred obligation to care for our troops and their families.”
“And I will always honor, and never disparage, their service and their sacrifice,” she added.
While she didn’t mention it, her pledge was a rebuke of Trump’s reported criticism of America’s soldiers as “woke” and the country’s honored dead as “suckers” and “losers.”
In response, the crowd chanted: “USA, USA, USA” once more.
As the balloons dropped around her and the jubilant crowd at the close of her speech, supporters in the convention hall cheered wildly and a sea of American flags waved proudly.
It’s a sign that Democrats are finally ready to stop worrying about Republicans claiming they lack of patriotism and instead reclaim patriotism as their own, uniquely Democratic virtue.
It’s something Maines would appreciate, and probably does.
She was there, with her bandmates, now called “The Chicks,” to perform at the convention earlier in the evening.
Their song? The Star-Spangled Banner.
