Sacramento city councilwoman Mai Vang, a far-left Democrat running for California's 7th congressional district, has been caught repeatedly turning her back on the American flag during government meetings and refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance — including at a Veterans Day ceremony. Because nothing says "I deserve a promotion to Congress" like spitting on the country that saved your family.
The best part? Vang is the daughter of Hmong refugees who fled Laos after assisting U.S. forces during the Vietnam era. So the flag she can't bear to face is the same one her parents ran toward to survive. Incredible.
According to LifeZette, Vang has made this her signature move at multiple city council meetings, not just a one-time protest moment. She claims she does it to "ground" herself and "resist" the injustices committed by America, and has painted the Pledge of Allegiance as something that keeps Americans "complacent." She also posted on Facebook back in February with a "#FreePalestine" hashtag, because of course she did.
Vang is challenging incumbent Rep. Doris Matsui in the 7th district, which covers Lodi, Placerville, and El Dorado Hills. So she's running in a district full of working-class Californians and Gold Country communities — people who actually stand for the flag — and her pitch is that America's national symbols are tools of oppression.
Bold strategy, Mai. Let's see how that plays in Placerville.
Even Democrats can't defend this one. Steve Maviglio, a Democratic consultant, called her behavior "completely disrespectful to veterans and their families," adding that "even if you don't agree with everything, you say the Pledge of Allegiance." When your own party's consultants are publicly distancing themselves from you, you might want to reconsider the whole "turn your back on the country" campaign strategy.
David Cushman, the San Joaquin County GOP chairman, nailed it when he described Vang as attempting to be "the AOC of the Central Valley." That's exactly what she's doing — importing the worst impulses of the far-left coastal elite into a part of California that still has some common sense left.
California Republican Party chair Corrin Rankin piled on, saying Vang has "too much contempt for law enforcement, too little respect for our country." And Republican candidate Zachariah Wooden didn't hold back either, calling her attitude toward American symbols "not just disappointing, it's malicious."
He's right. This isn't some thoughtful dissent from a principled critic. This is performative contempt. She's not protesting a specific policy or injustice. She's rejecting the entire concept of American patriotism — at a Veterans Day ceremony, no less — and then asking those same voters to send her to Washington.
Here's what gets me. Her parents were Hmong refugees. They risked everything to get to this country because the alternative was persecution or death after helping American forces in Laos. They came here because this flag meant freedom and safety and a future for their children. And now their daughter stands in a government building — a building that exists because of that flag — and turns her back on it.
That's not resistance. That's ingratitude dressed up as ideology.
The voters of California's 7th district will have their say. And something tells me the folks in Lodi and El Dorado Hills aren't exactly lining up to send the "AOC of the Central Valley" to Congress. But hey, at least she's making it easy to know exactly who she is before Election Day.
