The Deeper Story Behind Justice Alito And His Flags
By Carl Davidson
LeftLinks Weekly, May 24, 2024
When Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito first flew an upside-down American flag on his home's flagpole, it just seemed a bit odd. Was there just as a widely-known symbol of distress?
But once Alito added the 'Appeal to Heaven' flag, with the pine tree symbol, at his summer home, a deeper story begins to unfold. Both flags were among those carried by the Jan 6, 2021, Trump insurrectionists as they stormed the Congress in an attempted coup.
So, what's the deal with the 'Pine Tree' flag? Some claim it was first commissioned by George Washington in 1775 to be flown on the naval ships of the colonies, which were beginning to revolt. The 'Appeal to Heaven' banner slogan comes from John Locke, the political theorist much admired at the time and still influential today. Locke advanced the idea as justified when all other appeals to the monarch, his government, and laws had failed. Essentially, it meant 'all bets are off, armed conflict is now the only hope.' It was justified as a 'natural right' not bestowed by the government but by Providence.
Here, the story gets more interesting. Who were the folks carrying that flag at the Jan 6. attack? As explained in one of our articles this week, it was adopted in 2013 by an outfit called the New Apostolic Reformation, who in turn presented it to Sarah Palin of Alaska. Palin then proclaimed it the banner of 'Christian Nationalism,' which aimed at building a theocracy to replace much, if not all, of the Constitution. Toward that end, the NAR theocrats advanced the 'Seven Mountains' metaphor for the seven institutions it had to conquer, step by step, to gain hegemony: religion, family, government, education, media, arts and entertainment, and finally, commerce. Think of it as their ‘Gramsci-in-reverse’ plan, a long march through the institutions that had to be subdued for a fascist theocracy to reign.
The story doesn't stop here. This is where Justice Clarence Thomas enters, stage right, as Alito's partner in our cartoon above. The Supreme Court just ruled against a claim from Blacks in South Carolina that the electoral district lines had been gerrymandered to deny them any reasonable ability to win representation. Alito asserted the lines were drawn to isolate Democrats, which was OK, and the fact that they were Black was secondary and irrelevant. (We kid you not.) Justice Thomas, moreover, issued his own concurring opinion, claiming the Supreme Court had no business whatsoever on such matters and that the root of the error was the 1954 'Brown vs. Board' decision on desegregating schools. The Warren Court was wrong, and segregation should have prevailed.
Now we see how the 'Pine Tree' flag is connected to another flag carried into the Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, the 'Stars and Bars' battle flag of the Confederacy. The fact that others also carried the Stars and Stripes isn't contradictory in their minds. The plan is to merge them all in a New Confederacy, using 'white Christianity,' rightwing populism, subordination of women, and a newly minted fascism to make it whole.
We have known for some time, especially since the Liz Cheney hearings, that a fascist bloc has existed in many churches and Congress, several governorships, and even more statehouses. We've also witnessed the battles over abortion rights and against sex and race education materials in libraries. But now a fascist element in the U.S. Supreme Court has literally started flying its flags.
We have been warned, and time is growing short. We understand the need to keep the heat on Biden regarding Gaza. Keep it up. But we must also narrow the target and keep our eyes on the prize in November.