JAKE AUCHINCLOSS AND INCENDIARY RHETORIC: ‘We can’t burn their book, but they can burn our flag?’

In no way did Auchincloss advocate ‘burning the Qur’an’. But the faux-outrage serves a purpose beyond damaging a political opponent. It allows those expressing it to avoid addressing what is in fact an entirely valid question, one to which the voters of Massachusetts deserve an answer: why is it acceptable for people to burn the American flag but not the Qur’an?

Since they are clearly not going to get such an answer from Auchincloss — who immediately issued the standard groveling apology, tweeting that  ‘as a white man, I recognize that I need to interrogate my own privilege’ — perhaps they might consider the observation made at the time by Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. In an interview with Larry King, Breyer, an Army veteran, recalled how the sight of the American flag being burned during the Vietnam War triggered ‘a physical reaction of repulsion’ in him. Yet such are the burdens of living in a free society. ‘We protect expression that we hate,’ he said. ‘You can think what you want.’ That is the message our leaders should send to the Muslim world the next time a citizen exercises his or her Constitutional rights in a way most of us find abhorrent.

And how refreshing it would have been for Auchincloss to tell his critics that, not only was the question he asked a legitimate one 10 years ago, but that their responses prove why it’s even more relevant today.

Forget it Jake — it’s Massachusetts.