New Flag Burning Argument?

They're at it again. Apparently having a lot of time on their hands, the Senate is considering yet again an amendment banning flag burning (and other signs of disrespect).

This issue has been around so long most people don't even want to hear the arguments any more. But maybe, just maybe, I have a slightly different take. So hear me out.

You don't like seeing the flag burned. Neither do I. But wouldn't you rather know the reason it's not being burned is because people revere it, not because they fear it?

Columbus Guy says: This was one of the most despicable things George H.W. Bush did, pushing the flag burning amendment. (P.J. O'Rourke's most excellent Parliament of Whores has a wonderful chapter on the supreme court's decision on this, "Doing the most imoprtant kind of nothing: The Supreme Court") It's hard to imagine a more directly political act of speech than burning the flag, but George wanted to fuss with the First Amendment for his own campaign interests. (Of course, what he did pales compared to what George W. Bush, the supreme court and Congress did with McCain Feingold.)

Anyway, LAGuy forgets another, less noble benefit to broad First Amendment protections: It flushes the idiots out, so you know who they are. Burn, baby, burn.