Why, Hillary? Why?

Picked up from DailyKos:

Newsday.com: Sen. Clinton co-sponsors anti-flag burning law: "Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is supporting new legislation to criminalize desecration of the United States flag _ though she still opposes a constitutional ban on flag attacks. Clinton, D-N.Y., has agreed to co-sponsor a measure by Republican Sen. Bob Bennett of Utah, which has been written in hopes of surviving any constitutional challenge following a 2003 Supreme Court ruling on the subject. "

Sigh.

Yes, as Kos notes, Hillary wants to curry favor with "moderates" (what an extraordinary political era we live in, in which curtailing harmless but "unpatriotic" speech is a "moderate" position). And yes, it's largely symbolic legislation (probably unconstitutional anyway) and maybe liberals should swallow it if it will help attract the voters needed to finally influence the really critical issues on the policy agenda (health care/Medicare, the federal budget, war in Iraq).

Yet, I've always regarded flag-burning laws and, even worse, flag-burning amendments as particularly pernicious, and a gesture that liberals should forego especially given the prevailing jingoistic mood in this country. First, as noted, these laws arbitrarily target one harmless form of political expression for censure merely because some find it "unpatriotic" or objectionable. That these laws wrongly infringe our First Amendment rights seems clear to me, and that alone should end the argument. But second, having conceded that flag desecration is an unacceptable form of political speech, where is the new line to be drawn? How many other forms of speech will be struck down? I don't think this is a road we want to go down.

Where oh where are the principled liberals who will put their feet down and stand up for the eminent patriotism of freedom of speech? Why don't we argue that the best way to honor our country, and the sacrifices of those who have put their lives on the line for this country, is to protect all forms of political expression? Is that really so hard? And won't that win over at least a few libertarians? We're not likely to win over the flag-amendment crowd anyway...