The thing is that this country was founded on certain priciples, and they all mostly boil down to the idea that you're free to do what you want as long as it doesn't impede someone else's ability to do what they want. There's obviously a lot of grey area there, as you occasionally have mutually exclusive wants. But that's why we have a legal system.

Burning a flag doesn't impede anyone else's ability to do anything. Period. Lack of offense is not protected under the Constitution, and, as such, burning a flag shouldn't be taken any differently than calling someone an idiot.

Quote:
Aren't they just showing their patriotism?

Their misguided patriotism, IMO, but yeah. On the other hand, no one's saying that they can't continue to complain about it. In fact, I'm sure that the people who are doing the flag burning would be miffed if everyone just accepted it. It's specifically the strength of that imagery and people's belief in it that makes it a powerful statement.

So, those who want to ban flag burning want to take away people's ability to do something just so that they won't be offended, and those who want to burn flags have no interest (at least as far as the flag burning itself is concerned) in preventing anyone from doing anything. Which seems more wrong to you?