When Christopher Gadsden presented colonial Marines with a flag he designed depicting a coiled rattlesnake over the words “Don’t Tread On Me,” It’s doubtful he knew it would someday be affixed to the rear end of horseless vehicles traveling at great speeds.

And yet, here we are in 2024, and Iowa House Republicans want to give Iowans the freedom to buy Gadsden flag license plates. Who am I to oppose license plate liberty?

But there is something comical about forking over $50 annually to the government to put an anti-government symbol on your truck. Money raised will go for Second Amendment training conducted by the Iowa Firearms Coalition, an affiliate of the National Rifle Association. The coalition is the only group supporting the bill.

It cleared the House Wednesday on a 60-34 largely party-line vote.

The Gadsden flag has served as a potent symbol in U.S. history. But which history are lawmakers seeking to promote?

The Gadsden banner likely was inspired by an illustration in Benjamin Franklin’s paper, The Philadelphia Gazette, in 1754. It shows a snake cut into pieces, with each piece labeled as a colony. “Join or Die” read the caption. It was meant to encourage colonial unity in the face of a war with France and its Native American allies.

Gadsden designed his flag in 1775 and it encouraged colonial unity once again, this time against the British. Gadsden represented South Carolina in the first and second Continental Congress as well as seeing action in the military during the Revolutionary War.

After the revolution, the eagle displaced the snake as the nation’s symbol. But before and during the Civil War, confederates co-opted the snake’s symbolism and hoisted the Gadsden flag in defiance of federal authority. You may recall that defiance was in defense of slavery.

The Union gave up trying to retake the snake and, instead, created illustrations showing eagles eating snakes. As Laura Brodie wrote in a 2023 Washington Post column, the whole thing resembled a modern day meme war on social media.

So, the confederacy lost. And the snake flag lived a relatively quiet existence as a symbol for Libertarians and others who opposed nanny government.

But after Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, the snake returned with a vengeance. The Gadsden flag became a symbol of the anti-government Tea Party movement. It sprang up when America’s first Black president took office. Just a coincidence.

Fast forward to Jan. 6, 2021, when supporters of former President Donald Trump invaded the Capitol to “stop the steal” and halt an electoral vote count their hero lost fair and square. You couldn’t swing a blunt weapon without hitting a Gadsden flag.

One of the rioters who dragged Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone down the Capitol steps was wearing a Gadsden flag T-shirt. A rioter who scaled a Capitol wall and sprayed officers with a fire extinguisher was carrying a Gadsden flag. He was sentenced to 33 months in prison.

A woman carrying a Gadsden flag was trampled in the push to enter the Capitol and died.

So which history are we embracing? The spirit of 1775, the confederacy, Tea Party or the Big Lie legions who attacked the Capitol?

Given the power of MAGA Republicans in Iowa, it seems clear. The venom runs in their veins.

This is a GOP regime that treads on rights of women and LGBTQ Iowans, wants to dictate school curriculum, ban books and use “religious freedom” to void the freedoms of others. They promote “Don’t Tread On Me” while leaving footprints on the backs of thousands of Iowans.

Not all of our liberties are prized, speaking of flags.

(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com

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