What Flags Tell Us About Polarization

There’s the world of political polls – they abound – and of cartoons. Flags offer another manifestation of polarization.

There are a host of ways to measure the polarization gripping our country these days. Google tells us 192,000 scholarly papers on the subject are posted on the Internet. Then there’s the world of political polls – they abound – and of cartoons. Flags offer another manifestation of polarization.

During a late October trip across state to visit a long-time friend living in Jordan Valley, the flags of Eastern Oregon show a divided Oregon. The American Flag is flying in Eastern Oregon, just as surely as the American Flag was a visible fixture in many images of the January 6 insurrection mob storming the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. Debates around the flag (and polarization) are not new.

In the 1960s, waving the flag became a symbol of the divide between “doves” and “hawks” over our continuing war in Vietnam. The late William Rehnquist, writing as Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court said, “Throughout more than 200 years of our history (the flag) has come to be the visible symbol embodying the Nation.”

There’s a thread of nationalism in the populist politics which emerged in 21st Century America. Flags help tell that viewpoint as well. It wasn’t an accident that red from the flag came to be the red of “Make America Great Again” caps and apparel in the 2016 and 2020 Donald Trump election campaigns.

Over lunch at the Big Loop Pizza in Jordan Valley (population 179) while watching the constant stream of Amazon semi-trailers coming from an Idaho warehouse to destinations in Oregon, we talked politics. My friend observed that someone said to him “Trump is an S.O.B., but he’s our S.O.B.” In the election one year ago, the Jordan Valley precinct –much larger than the small town itself – recorded seven votes for Joe Biden, 154 for Donald Trump.

A frequent alternate to the U.S. flag is the rattlesnake-on-yellow banner, attributed to Christopher Gadsden of South Carolina and flown in the American Revolution. That flag adds more nuance to the contours of modern polarization. In 21st Century America the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag emerges as an expression of personal freedom and individualism, to quote one modern dictionary. 

Other flags require little analysis and merely show the political sides we’ve opted into. One year after the presidential election that replaced Donald Trump, a “Trump 2024” flag flew in the precinct of North Lake County where Trump polled 77 votes in 2020 – 71 percent of the votes cast. There’s a new slogan on the 2024 flag: Make votes count again.

These are prosperous and independent people flying their flags. The Jordan Valley economy is based on cattle ranching — grazing and feeding on deeded land in the winter. Most cattle graze public lands for more than half the year while forage and grain for winter feeding grow on the deeded lands. Another part of the local economy comes and goes with mining of silver and other precious metals in nearby mountains. Both sectors of the economy – and elsewhere in Eastern Oregon you add in timber, mostly grown on public lands – bring friction between residents and federal land managers. People talk politics because livelihoods depend on continuing relations with the federal government, and how the government and courts interpret environmental laws.  

It’s not all politics with the flags of Eastern Oregon. This banner configured to recite the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution flies over a gate east of Christmas Valley in North Lake County. It’s a precinct where last November’s vote was Trump 42, Biden O.

But flying from both gateposts are two more flags. Both fan flags for the Seattle Seahawks. You can imagine the folks at the other end of the long ranch road would as soon talk about the fortunes of Quarterback Russell Wilson as those of the divided country in which we live.

While traveling the Christmas Valley Highway, one also finds two flags – one inside, the other outside— the Farmhouse Café and Bakery. A place for a good meal and talking about whatever is on your mind. Flags flying.

Retired journalist. Former Jackson County Commissioner. Born in Corvallis, 1934; graduate of Oregon State.