Our Mission

The American Flag. The red, white and blue. A symbol of so much to so many. Democracy, freedom, liberty, tolerance, safe harbor from tyranny and oppression. It can conjure sense memories of a time when people talked without irony about honor, justice, courage, and being on the right side of history. It’s not that America is a perfect place – far from it. But for the better part of 250 years, the stars and stripes have represented a positive patriotism, one that is inclusive, strong and uplifting. 

But for some time, the flag that belongs to all Americans has been usurped by those who adhere to values that make many of us recoil – bigotry, hatred, misogyny, xenophobia. The sight of a flag waving from the back of a pickup or in a front yard can trigger a sense of dread, fear that it does not represent time-honored American values, but instead support for political violence, hatred, disinformation, conspiracy theories, autocracy.

We think it’s a mistake to acquiesce, to abandon the flag to those whose vision is an America where politicians call for their rivals to be executed, where school children live in daily fear of being shot, where women have no bodily autonomy, where health care is unaffordable, where bigotry is the norm, where government is stripped of power to protect its citizens from harm, where elections are corrupt.

We believe that the flag belongs to all of us, and that we can and must stand together to reclaim it from those who seek to pervert its meaning. And we propose that the best way to do that is to let it fly. The more that the flag is flown and shown by people of good will, whatever your political persuasion, the more we will be pushing back at the idea that the flag belongs to only those on the radical fringe; the more we will be recapturing and amplifying that the American flag is a symbol for the positive values of Democracy, honesty, integrity, decency, kindness. 

Retake the flag is a movement. Please join us and fly your flag proudly.