On what planet is the Confederate Flag NOT racist? Here on Planet Earth, the Klan uses the Confederate Flag as symbol of white supremacy. Get a clue. If the Klan is using your symbol, it's racist.
To deny that it is racist is to deny common sense and to ignore recent history. The flag enjoyed a huge renaissance during the Civil Rights era. Angry, white Southerners brought it back to show they weren't going to take this whole desegregation thing lying down. They adopted it again as a symbol of hatred and defiance. They dusted it off to terrorize blacks who had the audacity to fight Jim Crow laws.
I'm just not buying the "it's a heritage thing" crap. Heritage IS hate. It's like those kids throwing Fried Chicken and Watermelon parties on Martin Luther King day and then faking like they didn't know their party would offend anyone. "Dude, you are taking this burning cross thing totally the wrong way! We were just making s'mores. You know, to honor Dr. King."
C'mon people. Get serious. We disagree with you but that doesn't make us stupid.
I don't care if private citizens want to get Confederate flag tattoos, to wear those dumb looking trucker hats and make bogus ten million dollar eBay bids on the General Lee. Just don't fly the flag on state property and use tax dollars to pay guards to keep it safe.
Flying the Confederate Flag on state grounds is shameful. Voters in Southern states shouldn't be paying to fly terrorist flags. Here's a news tip! The South LOST. Since when do losers get to fly their flag? Losers don't get to fly their flag. It's in the loser rule book, "Rule #3. You Lose. Now take down your flag." Ditch the Confederate license plates too, while you're at it.
The Confederate Flag enjoyed a renaissance during Reconstruction, during the Civil Rights Era and now at the Republican debate. And by holding their debate in South Carolina, the GOP sent a 'dog whistle' message to voters - the Southern strategy is on. Big time.
Did you catch John McCain flip-flopping on the flag flap?
"In South Carolina, the state that will hold the first Southern primary election in January, local issues permeate the contest as well. McCain was painfully reminded in this debate that, during his bid for the GOP nomination in 2000, he had argued that flying the Confederate flag atop the state Capitol in Columbia was a matter for the state to decide -- only to return to the state later to concede that he had taken a politically expedient stance and he regretted it.
Now, with that flag moved to a monument in front of the Capitol, he was asked, should South Carolina be free to fly the Confederate flag from state buildings?
"It is not flying on top of the Capitol,'' McCain said tonight. "Yes, I was wrong when I said that I believed that it was up to the state of South Carolina... Now after long negotiation... there is agreement that that flag no longer flies on top of the state Capitol... Almost all parties involved in those negotiations believe that is a reasonable solution... I support it... I think it is time we all moved on that issue.''"
When asked about the Southern strategy, infamous GOP consultant Lee Atwater said this:
"You start out in 1954 by saying, "Nigger, nigger, nigger." By 1968 you can't say 'nigger'--that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.
And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me--because obviously sitting around saying, "We want to cut this," is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than "Nigger, nigger."
The GOP needs to lock down the South to win the Presidency and it could get ugly. "Call Me Harold" and "Barack The Magic Negro" might end up looking like Valentines when this is all over.