I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I miss Richard Nixon.
He was a detestable bigot and despite his own protestations, a crook.
The great Hunter S. Thompson wrote at his death, he was “a political monster straight out of Grendel and a very dangerous enemy” who “could shake your hand and stab you in the back at the same time.”
But at least he wasn’t a narcissist.
And he respected history; he respected protocol and in a weird way, he respected the office that he so damaged with the lying and thieving he used to hang onto power until he realized the gig was up and he had to resign.
And, so, when former President Harry Truman, with whom he had warred with over his investigation of former State Department lawyer and Soviet spy Alger Hiss, died the day after Christmas in 1972, he did what anyone who respected history, protocol and the office of president would do.
He ordered American flags lowered in Truman’s honor.
“In proclaiming the day of mourning, Mr. Nixon, one of many past political antagonists whose respect for the former president grew with the years, ordered flags on federal buildings flown at half-staff for 30 days – past his own inaugural date,” The Courier Journal reported the day after Truman’s death.
The sun rises on Veterans Memorial Island Sanctuary as the flag flies at half-staff for the late President Jimmy Carter, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, in Vero Beach. While issuing Thursday, Jan. 9 as a national day of mourning in honor of Carter and day off for most federal workers, President Joe Biden also said flags at the White house, public buildings and grounds and at all military posts will be displayed at half-staff.
Not only was it the right thing to do, it was what federal law called for — and still does.
The U.S. Flag Code has been part of public law since 1942 and dictates how the flag should be folded, stored and displayed, among other things.
Gerth: Thomas Massie is even more marginalized after losing House speaker fight | Opinion
“The flag shall be flown at half-staff 30 days from the death of the President or a former President,” according to the law. There’s no penalty for not following the law – we have just always expected that our government would.
Until now.
Trump isn’t following flag code. He’s only thinking about himself.
President Joe Biden ordered flags at half-staff after Carter’s death on Dec. 29, but Trump was soon whining about it on Truth Social, his social media platform.
“They think it’s so great, and are so happy about it because, in actuality, they don’t love our Country, they only think about themselves” he wrote on Jan. 3, according to USA TODAY. “Look at what they’ve done to our once GREAT America over the past four years – It’s a total mess! In any event, because of the death of President Jimmy Carter, the Flag may, for the first time ever during an Inauguration of a future President, be at half mast. Nobody wants to see this, and no American can be happy about it. Let’s see how it plays out.”
Actually, it appears that the narcissist in chief is the one who is only thinking about himself.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and the Republican governors of at least nine states – including Mike Braun of Indiana – have fallen in line and done as the narcissist-in-chief ordered and restored flags to full-staff for the inauguration.
Gerth: Hopefully DEI isn’t dead – and these companies aren’t afraid of equity | Opinion
I asked Crystal Staley, the spokeswoman for Andy Beshear, Kentucky’s Democratic governor, if Kentucky would lower its flags. I haven’t heard back.
Disrespecting Jimmy Carter’s legacy
In what may be the worst show of disrespect, Trump raised the flag at his Mar-a-Lago club, where he lives in Palm Beach, Florida, to full staff less than a week after Carter’s funeral.
Mind you, all of this disrespect is being done by the same people who so vociferously complained when former NFL player Colin Kaepernick knelt during the national anthem that he was “disrespecting the flag.”
On the bright side, those on the right are removing any doubt that their complaints about Kaepernick had nothing to do with the flag or the national anthem but had everything to do with a Black guy speaking up about racism and police brutality.
Meanwhile, I’m just sitting here trying to figure out how our nation got to the point where we look back on Nixon and think, “Ahhh, the good old days.”
Agree or disagree? Submit your letter to the editor here
Joseph Gerth can be reached at 502-582-4702 or by email at jgerth@courierjournal.com. You can also follow him at jgerth@bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Republicans disrespect US flag for Trump inauguration | Opinion
