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Florida sparks fresh liberal outrage over ‘vile’ new license plate touted by DeSantis

August 4, 2022 | | Print Article

Once again, Governor Ron DeSantis has liberals racing for their safe spaces — this time, over a new license plate benefitting the Florida Veterans Foundation that features the Gadsden flag and what the fearless Florida leader says is a “clear message to out-of-state cars.”

“Don’t tread on me,” DeSantis stated. And don’t, he cautioned, tread on the free state of Florida.

Faster than the strike of a coiled rattlesnake, the media rushed to declare the flag a symbol of Ron DeSantis’s racism. DeSantis spokesperson Christina Pushaw called the attempt to mischaracterize the centuries-old flag “absurd.”

“The latest fake news hysteria is about the new Gadsden Flag license plate @GovRonDeSantis announced to help Florida veterans in need,” she tweeted. “Media is smearing this as a ‘racist’/’domestic terrorist’  symbol, which is absurd!”

Indeed, according to Historical Americana, the Gadsden flag has flown in the name of civil liberties since the Revolutionary War.

“The bright yellow Gadsden flag, long a symbol of support for civil liberties and disagreement with government, has its beginning deeply rooted in the days of the American Revolution,” the site explains. “The rattlesnake, the Gadsden flag’s central feature, had been an emblem of Americans even before the Revolution.”

Using the emblem to help veterans is entirely appropriate, as the flag originated with a colonel in the United States Navy and a bunch of marching Marines.

“The rattlesnake symbol caught on and became a part of several other Revolutionary War flags,” the history site reports. “Before the departure of the United States Navy’s first mission in 1775, Continental Colonel Christopher Gadsden from South Carolina presented the newly appointed commander with a yellow rattlesnake flag to serve as a standard for his flagship. Accompanying the Navy on its first mission were five companies of Marines carrying yellow drums featuring a snake with 13 rattles and the words ‘Don’t Tread on Me.’ The Navy later adapted the snake emblem and “Don’t Tread on Me” motto into what is now known as the First Navy Jack.”

As late as 2002, the Gadsden flag flew in opposition to terrorism.

“Featuring a rattlesnake stretched across 13 red and white stripes with ‘Don’t Tread on Me’… the Secretary of the Navy ordered in 2002 that this powerful American symbol will fly on all naval ships for the duration of the War on Terrorism,” according to the site.

So, in a very real sense, the Gadsden flag stands for the very principles that founded this nation.

And that, says journalist Lesley Abravanel, is “vile.”

It’s no wonder she feels this way.

According to whistleblowers who have reached out to Project Veritas, the FBI has been working overtime to paint the Gadsden flag as a symbol of domestic terrorism — exactly the opposite of its historical, symbolic meaning.

 

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Which will likely surprise drivers in Virginia, who have sported the Gadsden flag on their cars for a decade.

But this is 2022, and changing the established, long-accepted meaning of things they don’t like seems to be a thing with progressives.

In fact, suggests one user on Twitter, the Dems’ latest bout of hysteria may only serve to ensure more Gadsden flags are seen rolling down Florida’s roads.

“Wouldn’t it be funny if the hysteria ends up boosting the sale of the #Florida license plate that benefits #Veterans,” the user asked. “It would be a lose lose for the losers.”

That would please Pushaw no end.

“I hope,” she tweeted back, “this is exactly what happens!”

Melissa Fine
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