A Second Hand Conjecture

The current dust-up over the Cuban-Che flag (flags?) hanging in the Houston campaign office for Barack Obama (opened by supporters, with actual staffers intended to occupy by next week), has spawned some interesting commentary. Captain Ed advised:

Oh, my. Barack Obama may want to call his new Houston office and suggest some decorating ideas…No, that’s not a Texas state flag with a picture of Obama on it. It’s the flag of the Castro-led Cuba regime, with Che Guevara’s face superimposed on the side. A Fox report from Houston captured this image as it showed Obama supporters celebrating his momentum after Super Tuesday.

Does Obama know his Houston supporters honor a terrorist in his campaign office? I’m sure he doesn’t. However, it would behoove him to ensure that the flag gets taken down and that he renounces any affinity for Che and the Fidel Castro regime.

I really doubt that Obama has any idea either. But this is campaign season, and his refusal to wear a flag pin or put his hand on his heart during the pledge of allegiance opens him up to attack based on this sort of miscue by his supporters. I really don’t care about the flag pin (I don’t wear one either), but the hand-over-the-heart petulance does raise legitimate questions, IMHO.

In any case, the leftosphere is accusing the rightosphere of having apoplectic fits over this, and using “Rovian Swiftboaters,” with their prime target being Captain Ed (my emphasis).

Oh darn those college volunteers with their affinity for hacky-sack & Che Guevara!

It’s going to be another long, reality-deprived year from the GOP Operatives. Apparently, some young volunteer for the Obama campaign had the temerity to set up an office in Texas BEFORE Obama’s actual staffers arrived in Texas. This included someone taking something off their dorm room wall, a Cuban flag with a picture of Che Guevara on it. This sent Captain Ed to the nitro tablets and asthma respirator.

It seems someone hasn’t been on a college campus in thirty-five years. Where youthful affectation with revolucion long ago replaced pictures of “Happiness is a Warm Puppy”. Oh those kids today with their I-Phones, their I-Pods, and their I-deas.

Up next, college-age Hillary Volunteer wears “Bush Sucks” T-Shirt. Ed Morrissey faints.

James Joyner attempts to the split the difference:

[Captan Ed is] right that Che is a terrorist who shouldn’t be honored by decent people. Che worship (or, alternatively, the wearing of Che t-shirts as a statement without the slightest clue of who he was) seems to be a phase that certain left-leaning activists go through in their youth; it generally passes. Driscoll’s characterization of it as “juvenilia” is spot on.

But, surely, Obama doesn’t need to publicly weigh in on the decorating choices of every low level staffer? Let alone “renounce” affinities which he’s never shown?

I sure didn’t take from Captain Ed’s post (or Charles Johnson’s) that he wanted Obama to take a loyalty oath (as Joyner later suggests), and I’m not sure why suggesting that Obama distance himself from such an idiotic display of anti-Americanism is going beyond the pale. Captain Ed was simply encouraging Obama to have his Sister Souljah moment, which seems like pretty good political advice.

But the most irritating thing about the apologia is the persistent inference that this was a youthful transgression. First of all, take a look at the picture and point out to me where this “youth” is. Do you see any college kids in that picture? Are there no adults in charge there? Don’t the women in the picture bear some responsibility here?

Secondly, why should anyone be even remotely complacent about the seemingly accepted fact that “youths” have no compunction about displaying the likeness of a mass murderer in the dorm rooms, on the their chests, and in their volunteer headquarters? Have we just given up on teaching any semblance of what’s right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable? If the flag was instead a revolucion flag from Chile with Pinochet’s hirsute mug gracing it, would the left be as complacent about that? How about Mao or Pol Pot? Is Mugabe OK, or Hugo Chavez? Where exactly does the line get drawn for which statist terrorists may grace the clothing and walls of “youths” before it becomes a fashion faux pas?

Oh, and for the record, here’s a little history on the source of that flag:

I came across a flag which is very usual in demonstantions and events of the youth organization of the portuguese communist party (J.C.P. / P.C.P.). It consists of a cuban flag defaced with the likeness of the mythical communist hero Ernesto “Che” Guevara. A similar flag, all red with black elements and bearing at times the cuban slogan “hasta la victoria siempre” (”towards the victory, always”). I’m not sure if any of these are used by communists anywhere else, namely in Cuba, but it is most likely.
Antonio Martins, 26 December 1999

This non-Cuban “Che flag” is or was, according to Jaume Olle’, used by a ultra left guerrilla group in Guatemala. I used darker colours because flags appear with darker colours. These flags are, of course, unofficial, so the shade here is basicaly a matter of taste, but they are usually used with darker colours than those we have in the Cuban national flag.
Jorge Candeias, 27 December 1999

Getting back to the genesis of this story, I really doubt that this will have much of an effect on Obama’s campaign. Those whom are already against an Obama presidency, aren’t going to be any further swayed by the fact that he has the support of communist sympathizers. By the same token, neither are those on the left with an affinity for Obama (even if they are voting for Hillary) going to be moved, since they seem to have little problem with communist sympathizers being in their midst (to their eternal shame, I might add). And anyone who is part of the undecided middle in this race, probably isn’t even going become aware of this little fiasco, since they likely don’t pay much attention to politics outside what they here on the evening news.

Indeed, the only real eye-opener here is that apparently a number of people think that mythical-Marxist hero worship is nothing more than a college kid fad, and they’re okay with the next generation being that stupid. I guess I’m just not.

Tags: Barack Obama, campaign, Che chic, Chile, communism, Cuba, Domestic Politics, Election 2008, Houston, Pinochet, socialism

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