I don't typically get on board with the Tea Party or Hoover institute thinkers but I agree with this sentiment quoted below. I think the hard push back by cyclists to Rep. Greenlicks child bike trailer/seat ban and our city's 2005 rejection of putting Portland Police in the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) are good examples from Portland aka little Beirut.

"The lesson of history is stark and simple. People who are easy to govern lose their freedom. People who are difficult to govern retain theirs. What makes the difference is not an ideology, but an attitude. Those people who embody the “Don’t tread on me!” attitude have kept their liberties simply because they are prepared to stand up against those who threaten to tread on them. To the pragmatist, it makes little difference what ideas free people use to justify and rationalize their rebellious attitude. The most important thing is simply to preserve this attitude among a sufficiently large number of people to make it a genuine deterrent against the power hungry. If the Tea Party can succeed in this all-important mission, then the pragmatist can forgive the movement for a host of silly ideas and absurd policy suggestions, because he knows what is really at stake. Once the “Don’t tread on me!” attitude has vanished from a people, it never returns. It is lost and gone forever — along with the liberty and freedom for which, ultimately, it is the only effective defense." from http://www.hoover.org/publications/policy-review/article/5387

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When it comes to cycling it's time for us to take the patriotic high ground. What shows American independence, the don't tread on me attitude, and self reliance more than getting out on the road and riding your bike? Certainly not driving a motor carriage. So wave those flags, my bike riding and feet walking friends, you are the real patriots.  If you are a liberal then you can even ask nicely first -"Please Don't Tread on Me."