A Portland man who was violently attacked by Anitfa during the August 4th counter protest against the Patriot Prayer rally was actually a progressive Bernie Sanders supporter who had brought the flag with him to show that the right doesn’t have a monopoly on patriotism.

Unfortunately for him, his peers had other opinions about supporting our nation and he ended up needing four staples to close the 3 inch gash in the back of his head.

Paul Welch, 38, was protesting peacefully with his flag when members of Antifa demanded that he get rid of it, calling it a “fascist symbol.” When the progressive protester declined to do so, a tug of war ensued, the Oregonian reports.

Soon, a black-clad member of Antifa approached and clubbed Welch in the back of the head like a coward, leaving him laying in a puddle of blood in the street.

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“I didn’t come as a part of any one group,” Welch said in an interview with The Oregonian/OregonLive. “I was just protesting outsiders coming here for their tacitly fascist event.”

Welch, clearly incorrectly, told the Oregonian that he was hoping to show that liberal cities are “much more American” than the right-wing groups they were protesting.

“I had felt like showing that a liberal, free Portland — or any major city, really — is much more American and much more numerous and strong than any of these interloping groups,” he said.

Unfortunately for him, there is nothing American about not being able to proudly carry our nation’s flag without getting your head bashed in — so he may want to reconsider his position.

“The right and certainly a lot of smaller groups like Patriot Prayer might rush to things like the flag and try to take it up as, ‘This is our symbol exclusively,'” he said. “Part of my thinking was to take it back.”

Earlier this summer, Welch had been bringing food and water to the Abolish ICE camp in his city. He also voted for Hillary Clinton and still thinks that the right-wing groups he was protesting against are the “offensive” ones — not his comrades who could have killed him.

“I remember thinking there was a very good chance that I could be beaten to death,” Welch said.

The Portland Police have opened an investigation into the incident.