At convention, Democrats claim patriotism, American flag as their own

CHICAGO — Patriotism is cool at this year’s Democratic National Convention.

Delegates wear suits adorned with stars and stripes, dresses with American flag patterns, and blouses featuring bald eagles or the Pledge of Allegiance. As attendees waved red, white and blue signs from their seats and chanted “U-S-A” on Monday night, country musician Mickey Guyton sang: “We got the same stars, the same stripes. Just wanna live that good life. Ain’t we all, ain’t we all American?”

The debate over which political party is more patriotic goes back decades. Republicans have often claimed the American flag as their own and argued that it represents conservative America, or signals alignment with conservative beliefs. But as they rally for the Democratic presidential ticket of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Democratic speakers and delegates are sporting Old Glory and other national symbols in what they say is a display of their patriotism and values — and a counterweight to former president Donald Trump’s use of the flag as a partisan symbol.

As delegates made their way to the convention floor at the United Center on Monday, Washington state delegates Ted Jones and Lora de la Portilla wore bright white cowboy hats as well as red, white and blue sashes that read “Cowboy Harris” — outfits created as a nod to the “Cowboy Carter” sash that Beyoncé wears on the cover of her recent country music album. Jones and De La Portilla said they were looking forward to seeing Democrats take “back the flag, the patriotism.”

“We’re taking back rural. We’re taking back country. They can’t claim it,” Jones said of Republicans. “Just cause a truck goes by with an American flag, we’ve got to stop going: ‘There goes a Trumper.’”

In 2023, a Gallup poll found that although 60 percent of Republicans expressed extreme pride in being American, only 29 percent of Democrats did. An April poll from Ipsos found that 92 percent of Republicans had a favorable opinion of the American flag, while 77 percent of Democrats did.

But Americans’ feelings about their country have tended to fluctuate based on whether their party occupies the Oval Office. A 2019 Gallup poll, for example, found that the percentage of Democrats who said then that they were extremely proud to be American sank from 56 percent in 2013 during the Obama era to 22 percent in 2019, deep in the Trump years. That same poll found that among Republicans, pride in the country rose from 68 to 76 percent between 2015 and 2019.

Democrats in recent years have “pointed out a lot of reasons why people shouldn’t be proud of America, and shouldn’t feel patriotic,” said Peter Loge, director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University. But Democrats in Chicago are “making the case that, for whatever its flaws, there is a lot to be proud of and that you can be both a proud Democrat and a proud American,” Loge added.

Also in the arena, Umi Grigsby, an Illinois Democrat, walked around with a handful of “USA” posters. Democratic convention staffers handed them out to audience members throughout the program, papering the hall in red, white and blue. The Liberian immigrant, who became a citizen in 2017, said those three letters represent her, and the symbolism of her carrying them around during the Democratic convention doesn’t escape her.

“It’s interesting how there’s one party that seems to feel like they own patriotism and own the U.S. flag, when actually there’s another party that’s saying, like, ‘You can all come here and we can all, you know, succeed here and it’s for all of us,’” she said.

Across the hall, Suzi Larson, a South Dakota delegate, waited in line fully decked out in red, white and blue. Her shawl was emblazoned with the American flag. Her shirt read, “In God We Trust.” Her fingernails were painted red, her toenails blue with stars. Larson said that while many Democrats shied away from showing their patriotism during the Trump administration, the love for country “has always been there.”

“It’s been tarnished, but it didn’t go away,” she said.

The Democratic Party is presenting a message that there is “nothing more American than freedom,” Democratic National Committee spokesman Abhi Rahman said.

“There’s no reason for us to be afraid of using those symbols, because those symbols are our symbols and there’s nobody that’s more proud to be American than we are,” Rahman said.

Democrats at the convention have sought to claim other symbols as their own, too. Michael Welsh, an alternate delegate from Alaska, walked around the convention Monday wearing a red hat that looked like Trump’s signature “Make America Great Again” cap from afar. His, however, read: “Make Lying Wrong Again.”

Welsh, an Army veteran, said he was horrified to see symbols and messaging often associated with the military be misused on Jan. 6, 2021, the day a pro-Trump mob — some of whom Trump has glorified as “patriots” — broke into the U.S. Capitol in a failed attempt to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential win. That, he said, was “a real affront to our service.”

“It’s time for veterans, especially Democratic veterans, to reclaim that mantle of patriotism, especially in light of the appalling statements Donald Trump has made” about veterans and service members, Welsh said.

Democrats have also sported camouflage-patterned hats around the convention arena. Almost immediately after Harris announced Walz — a lifelong hunter, fisherman and gun owner — as her running mate, the campaign began selling camo hats with the Harris-Walz logo in bright orange.

Camouflage patterns have a long history in the U.S. military, hunting culture and Republican campaign merchandise. The Harris-Walz hats — which sold out in 30 minutes, according to the campaign — bear a striking similarity to merchandise sold by “Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” pop star Chappell Roan.