Ep. 2455 - The Left REJECTS The Flag, The Bible… And AOC?!

The Ben Shapiro Show

Ben Shapiro critiques left-wing rejection of American symbols like the flag and Bible, linking it to anti-Trump sentiment. He defends patriotism, religious liberty, and historical foundations of America rooted in faith a

Key takeaways

• Left rejects flag due to anti-Trump bias

Transcript preview

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A-O-C. also gets why Texas wants to teach school kids the Bible by a radically anti-Israel, militantly gay, San Francisco congressional candidate is under fire from the left and the latest in Iran or President Trump launched some bombs over the weekend. This is the Ben Shapiro show. position just because they hate him so much. If he decides that he likes rock music and MMA and fighter jets, the left will say all of those things are awful. If he decides that you know it'd be awesome, a really cool fair on the Washington mall, the left will decide that the fair is really, really bad just because they hate him that much. If he decides that we need a better lining for the reflecting pool, the left will go nuts and say it's better if the place is essentially a swamp. So if President Trump hugs to burn it. Now the left should stop doing this because it's really really bad and really really stupid. If we are going to share anything in this country we should love the American flag. And again if you go back historically the people who most had reason not to like the American flag still found a way to love the American flag because it turns out that if you root for the principles of America eventually the American flag ends up flying for those principles. To take the most famous example Frederick Douglass the escaped slave back in the 1850s gave a speech on July 4 on July 4th. what July 4th was to the slave. The whole thing was to critique the speech of the idea that the Declaration of Independence did not properly apply to black people and his complaint was not that the Declaration of Independence was wrong or bad or the American flag was wrong or bad but why were black people not included in that promise and then of course a civil war was fought and over the course of a hundred years Jim Crow was extirpated specifically to fulfill Frederick Douglass his vision of a July 4th that stood for all Americans. to approach the American flag because that same American flag that was flying over in America that tolerated slavery flew with the troops wearing blue as they fought the Confederates in favor of abolishing slavery. But today the left has decided apparently in large scale that the American flag is just too uncomfortable. There's a large piece at NBC news today. Titled, many Americans say Stars and Stripes is now a red flag, quote, to fly or not to fly an American flag. That was never a question for Bruce. That was never a question for Bruce W. Watson, who has put his national pride on display for years, and nudges neighbors in his small New England town to do the same. But as the polarized nation marks its 250th birthday, Watson 72, worries his stars and stripes may now need an asterisk. If we do fly the flag, we will also put out signs to make it clear that we are not MAGA, he said. So first of all it's unbelievable, truly amazing that the left has allowed the right-to basically treat the flag as a right wing symbol. The American flag is not a right-wing symbol. So, it is a that to the right, I suppose they can, but it's a bold move, Cotton, not sure why they would do it. So apparently a bunch of people on the left are going to fly the flag but upside down to protest President Trump. Apparently, one person interviewed by NBC News is replacing the US flag with the state flag of Pennsylvania. Aaron Beltel, 22, who lives outside Philadelphia with her parents said her father will be flying the American flag, but she says if we're up to me mom we'd be flying the pride flag or the Philadelphia Eagles flag instead. I love our country but I'm not feeling very proud of our country right now. Which again is an insane proposition that's insane. You feel more loyalty and love for the Philadelphia Eagles than you do for the country. The Philadelphia Eagles, do you play for the Philadelphia Eagles? And by the way even if you do play for the Philadelphia Eagles you should still love the American flag more than you love the symbol of the Philadelphia Eagles. The pride flag as a flag. We'll get to that in a moment because that is in fact the default replacement flag for the American flag. According to NBC News, some readers said they were motivated by peer pressure more than patriotism. I just play my flag outside my home mainly because everyone else around my neighborhood does it even though I'm not 100% proud to be an American, said a new town Pennsylvania woman who also asked to remain anonymous. I feel if I don't have a flag displayed somewhere people will think I'm against our country or something. Well, I mean, kind of? kind of. The American flag. A Rhode Island teacher said she too is flying alternate flags, the Rainbow Pride flag and the banner of her beloved New England Patriots. The teacher said she had not flown the flag since 2024 when Trump was elected for a second term. I have a gay son and a trans son and felt that the flag was now a symbol flown by people who don't want my children to exist. So here lies the problem again. The American flag is a symbol. Symbels have underlying meanings. Those symbols stand four things. something different than the American flag stands for something different than the pride progress flag. So what does the American flag stand for historically? Well, most obviously the promise of the declaration of independence whose 250th anniversary we are celebrating this year. The greatness of the American Constitution, the greatest system of government ever devised by man. And yes, a set of values rooted in the Bible. Because it turns out that the declaration and the Constitution were not born out of arid soil. They didn't spring full-blown from the heads of the men who wrote them. They are the apex of a system of values that was rooted thousands of years beforehand. So if you don't like those things, then you probably are doing Americanism wrong. You're failing to understand what it is that makes America great and makes America awesome, regardless of your politics. And this is why it is bizarre that there's a gigantic controversy that is now broken out in the state of Texas over whether or not kids should learn about the Bible. Not that kids should be preached to be preached to be preached to the Bible, not that they must believe in Christ or that they must believe that Moses brought laws down from Mount Sinai or something. But there are people who are very upset that people are being taught the Bible in public schools. Well coming up we'll get to why the left hates America oh so much and what they want to replace the American flag with first. Last week I sat down with Medal of Honor recipient Clint Romiche. One thing that always stands out after conversations like that is this. The people who have served this country they don't talk about themselves as heroes. They talk about duty and about the people about the people needed to be done. As America approaches its 250th birthday, it's worth remembering our country's story isn't just about documents and speeches, it's about the generations of Americans who answered that call when freedom depended on them. When those men and women come home, our responsibility as fellow Americans does not end, which is why I'm proud that Pure Talk is partnering with America's Warrior Partnership to raise 250,000 dollars for veterans. America's Warrior Partnership is on the front lines of preventing veteran suicide by helping veterans access housing, transportation counseling, VA benefits, and benefits and other essential services. practical support that helps veterans build stable successful lives after service. When you switch your cell phone service to Pier Talk this month, you'll have the opportunity to round up your bill in support of America's Warrior Partnership. Pure Talk will match donations until they reach 250,000 dollars. You'll also get a limited talk, unlimited text and unlimited high speed data for just 3499 a month. That's a fraction of what the major carriers charge. Head on over to pure Talk.com slash Shapiro. Make the Talk. That's Pier Talk. patriotism isn't just something you feel on the 4th of July. It's how you choose to support the people who have served this country when they come home. So President Trump, on Friday, he was in the Oval Office and he was talking about religious liberty, because the Religious Liberty Commission for President Trump issued a draft report saying that the separation of church and state is a legal error and that Americans should view religion as an essential support and remember the Creator who made us and bestows our rights. And that, by the way is correct, because, again, again, the constant, does not mean that you are supposed to separate religion completely out of daily life that government can have no ad mixture at all with anything baseline religious that is not what the First Amendment says here's the president talking about this America was founded by people of faith and it was settled as a haven for religious freedom so important as we prepare to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our founding next week it is only a that we work to strengthen this fundamental right and to most essentially have liberty for generations to come we want religious liberty. Okay so what does religious liberty mean? Well obviously the verbiage of the First Amendment says the Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or abridging the free exercise thereof. Historically speaking a lot of people have read this wrong. There's a letter of Thomas Jefferson's in which he talks about a wall of separation between and state, but Thomas Jefferson himself saw biblical thinking as undergirding Western values. He wrote the 1786 Virginia statute for religious freedom, and Jefferson, who was himself a deist, but who also wrote a version of the New Testament in which he stripped out all the miracles. He said, quote, Almighty God hath created the mind free, that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishment or burdens, or by civil incapacitations tend only to be at habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, who religion, who being lord, who being lord, who being lord, who being lord, who being lord, who being lord, who, who, who being lord, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who being lord, who, who, who, who, who being lord, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who, who being lord, who, body and mind, it chose not to propagate it by coersions on either as well as his almighty power to do. So again, that is in the Virginia statute for religious freedom. So basically because Christian values suggest that you are supposed to allow for the free exercise of mind, that is why there should be free exercise of religion. But understand, the basic supposition of a First Amendment that allows for freedom of religion is a religious assessment of the world that God created individuals with freedom of mind and inherent value. and it would be an abridgment of that mind and freedom of choice for the government to cram down religion on you. It should also be worth noting that actually many of the original states did have an established religion. But again what are those clauses meant to do? Well those clauses are supposed to be read in tandem. The idea is that Congress should not make a law respecting an establishment of religion. So Congress should not, for example, force you to go and receive communion. Congress should not force you to go to go and receive communion. Congress should not force you to three times a day. But that's to be read in the context of abridging the free exercise thereof. Why? Because the idea was that if Congress establishes one form of religion, it would bar all the other forms of religion and this would inhibit your free exercise. And notice the words free exercise, that does not mean free thought, because thought is different from exercise. Religion does not just exist in the private sphere. It's not just something that you do in your church and in your home and something you do your whole life. And this is something that is something that is something that the whole life. And this is something that the found is something that the found and growing up in a religious society. The sociologist Emil Durkheim wrote, quote, a religious society does not exist without a collective credo, and it is more or less strong and united according to whether this credo is widely held. And all the founders understood this, by the way, including the most secular leaning of the founders. President John Adams, favorite founder wrote in a letter to the Massachusetts militia famously, quote, we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through an act. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. George Washington said the same quote, the foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality. There exists in the economy and course of nature and indissoluble union between virtue and happiness. Even James Madison, who authored provisions in the state of Virginia banning the establishment of religion, said he did so in order to strengthen religion because that religious discrimination would lead people to abandon religion. Jefferson himself recognized, quote, the moral branch of religion instructs us how to live well and worthily in society. Also, by the way, you are just not a literate Western citizen if you don't know the Bible. You are not literate. That is not opinion. That is fact. Virtually all of the Western canon. Everything from the works of the founding fathers to the words of Franklin Roosevelt cannot be understood without some reference point in the Bible. This is the particular truth for the founding era, by the way. There's a political scientist named Donald Lutz and he actually went through 15,000 sources of political writing from the founding era. He cataloged all of them. What is the single most cited book was the book of Deuteronomy in the founding literature? Not Locke, like you heard in school or Montesquieu. It's the Bible, of course, like a third of all citations. And the single most cited book was the book of Deuteronomy, which makes perfect sense because the book of deuteronomy is how do govern a nation. How dooronomy is how dooronomy is how dooron? So why is this relevant? Well, because a lot of people today are pretending that we're about to live in a Theocracy because the Texas State Board of Education has voted to require students to study the Bible stories, which by the way, again, you should. If you wish you have any basic literacy in your civilization, you need to know the Bible. You may notice, I am not a Christian. I am a Jew. I know the New Testament, because in order for you to understand the New Testament. You must