The American Left Is Learning to Love Patriotism Again

For years, you could predict the politics of a protest just by looking for flags. If they were waving, it was probably a right-wing rally. If they were absent, it was probably a left-wing one. But that’s changing.

This Presidents’ Day, protesters in all 50 states marched against the Trump-Musk administration, many of them carrying American flags—some reimagined, some unaltered, all of them a rebuke to the idea that patriotism belongs to one side. A few days later, Chappell Roan rode onto the Grammy stage atop a giant pink horse, drenching Western imagery in queer joy. Earlier that night, Beyoncé became the first Black woman to win Best Country Album for her album Cowboy Carter, making sure that, if there was a battle over Americana, she was walking away with the trophy.

These moments might seem disconnected, but they’re not. A new vibe shift is underway. The Left is reclaiming the aesthetics of patriotism, and it’s happening everywhere—on the streets, in music, and on national TV.

A Protest That Looked Like America

On Presidents’ Day, demonstrators filled Washington, D.C., and cities across the country, part of a movement organizing protests in all 50 states on the same day. They carried signs warning of rising authoritarianism, demanding action on democracy, civil rights, and economic justice. And they carried American flags—not as a provocation, not as an ironic statement, just as a flag. Some protesters held them high alongside pride flags. In Denver, marchers passed the state capitol waving unaltered flags next to banners calling for voting rights protections. In Anchorage, a demonstrator draped themselves in the flag like a cape while holding a sign that read, “Patriotism means fighting fascism.” In New York City, a speaker grabbed the mic and made the point plain: "They want us to be afraid of this flag. But it's ours, too."

For years, those images have been associated with right-wing rallies, but here they were, held by people who see their country under threat and refuse to surrender its symbols to the people endangering it. The assumption that the flag belongs to one political faction may not last much longer.

The French Left Wrote the Playbook on This

In France, the Left never stopped claiming its own history. The tricolore doesn’t belong to the far-right nationalists; it belongs to the people in the streets demanding higher wages and better protections for workers. The revolutionary motto, Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité, gets invoked by protest movements and strikers, by progressives who see their fight as part of a long and unfinished struggle.

The reason this works is simple: Symbols matter. If you abandon them, you let your opponents define them. That’s why French protesters still march under the same red, white, and blue banner that flew over the storming of the Bastille. It’s why they don’t hesitate to remind the powerful that revolution isn’t just history—it’s precedent.

That’s the shift happening now in the U.S.—people realizing that if they don’t claim these symbols, the people trying to dismantle democracy will.

A Cowboy in Rhinestones and a New Kind of Americana

That same impulse showed up on the Grammy stage. Chappell Roan, who won Best New Artist at the 2025 Grammys, delivered a dazzling performance of Pink Pony Club. She donned a feathered pink cowboy hat and a theatrical rodeo-inspired ensemble. As she sang, she was surrounded by dancers dressed as rodeo clowns, and—of course—the pink horse: a massive, over-the-top carnival prop that towered over the stage.

It was part Vegas, part Dolly Parton, part fever dream. And it was, unmistakably, patriotic.

A cowboy hat in pop culture has historically been a shorthand for a certain kind of masculinity, a certain kind of politics. Chappell Roan shredded that script.

And she wasn’t the only one. Earlier in the night, Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter won Best Country Album, making her the first Black woman to ever take home that award. It was a win that had been coming ever since the country music industry tried and failed to keep Texas Hold ‘Em off the radio. Country music has always been political, but the battle over who gets to claim it—and by extension, who gets to claim American identity—is playing out in real time.

For a long time, progressives acted like the aesthetics of patriotism were lost causes. If a cowboy showed up in pop culture, he probably came with a side of reactionary politics. If someone waved an American flag at a rally, you had a good guess which side of the political spectrum they were on. But that was never an inevitability. The cowboy can be reclaimed. The flag can be reimagined. And if anyone doubts that, they should take another look at that pink horse.

A Left-Wing Patriotism That Feels Inevitable

For years, progressives in the U.S. have been reluctant to embrace patriotism, in part because so many of our national symbols have been wielded against the very people fighting for change. But if progressives don’t claim these symbols, they don’t disappear—they just become the property of the other side. Something new is happening. Protesters are carrying the flag instead of abandoning it. Pop stars are turning classic Americana into high camp. And if you look at history, you can see how this plays out: what starts as subversion can become the new mainstream. The cowboy was once the mythic symbol of American rugged individualism; now, at least in Chappell Roan’s world, he’s dancing under a disco ball.

The Left’s new approach to patriotism isn’t about blind loyalty. It’s about staking a claim. This country belongs to all of us, and we’re not handing over the flag—or the cowboy hat—without a fight.