You know, I am against outlawing flag burning or passing amendments against it, on the traditional free speech grounds. But I date my departure from conventional leftism to an incident back during the 1970s, when the US invasion of Cambodia became public and I marched in an anti-war demo in San Jose, Calif, where I was then living. As we passed a post office, one of the demonstrators, a big burly guy, grabbed a flag that was flying there and began carrying it down the street. A postal worker, a much smaller man who was standing there ran up and grabbed it, and for several blocks the two of them walked in tandem, the postal worker saying nothing but absolutely determined not to let go of it and the demonstrator equally determined–at least for a while. Finally everyone got pretty embarrassed and someone said “let him have it,” at which the demonstrator let go with an embarrassed smile. The worker just said “it doesn’t mean anything to you anyway” and went away with it. It struck me at the time that a left movement that could not relate to and communicate with people like that postal worker, whose beliefs were equally sincere and whose love for his country was manifest, was a movement that was never going to get anywhere. I still feel that way now.