Politics & Power Quote by Mike Fitzpatrick

The line wraps itself in patriotism, but it’s really an argument about power: who gets to decide what’s visible in public, and whose rules count when “public” and “private” blur together. By saying the flag “represents every American,” Fitzpatrick claims the broadest possible moral jurisdiction. It’s a classic political move: elevate an object into a stand-in for the whole people, then treat any restriction on that object as a restriction on the people themselves.

The phrase “should not be hidden away” is doing heavy emotional labor. It implies shame, suppression, even a kind of censorship, without having to prove any censor exists. That framing primes outrage at a faceless authority, while the real target is more specific: property agreements, the fine print of homeowners’ associations, condo boards, and private covenants that regulate everything from paint colors to lawn ornaments. Those rules are mundane, bureaucratic, and often unpopular; pitting them against the flag turns a local governance dispute into a loyalty test.

The subtext is also a warning shot at technocratic order: you may have signed something, but you didn’t sign away your identity. It’s populist in structure, even if the issue is niche. The broader context, especially in the 2010s, is the proliferation of managed communities and the steady creep of private regulation into daily life. Fitzpatrick is betting that Americans will side with symbolic freedom over contractual restraint, even when the restraint is self-imposed.