Just a few thoughts to contribute to the current discussion about the confederate battle flag flying on government property in South Carolina and other southern states.
Democrats own the confederate flag, not Republicans! It was fascinating to watch the speed with which Leftists and Democrats placed the blame for the murders of nine Black churchgoers in Charleston South Carolina at the feet of Conservatives and Republicans. More fascinating to watch was the speed with which many Conservatives and Republicans rushed to accommodate (yet) another false Leftist narrative.
The President was the first to weigh in, politicizing the tragedy by calling for gun control. In remarks to the press following news of the murders, Obama said, “At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this kind of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency. It is in our power to do something about it.” As boorish as the president was following the tragic event, Charles Cotton, an National Rifle Association board member, took the prize for both insensitivity and taking the bait, to say nothing of earning a decent score for idiocy. Said Cotton: “…And he voted against concealed-carry. Eight of his church members who might be alive if he had expressly allowed members to carry handguns in church are dead. Innocent people died because of his position on a political issue.”
The Left was only getting started. Before the ink was dry on alleged shooter Dylan Roof’s arraignment papers, Democrats were blaming Roof’s racism on the Confederate flag flying at a Confederate memorial on the capital grounds. (Leftists also blamed the shooting on Fox News and the Drudge Report.) Leftists began to call for the immediate removal of the flag and right on cue some conservatives (small C intentional) began to push back; even the appearance of ambivalence, or the pointing to Liberal hypocrisy took on the look and feel of a defense of the confederate flag. To those Republicans I ask: Why do you care? You are correct that a flag was not responsible for the tragic events that took place at the Emmanuel AME church. But why do you care? The confederate flag doesn’t belong to Republicans. There is nothing about what that flag stands for that is in line with Conservative ideals. The Democrats own the confederate flag! Democrats own the ideas that flag stands for! Democrats raised that flag in opposition to Republican and Conservative ideals. In what crazy mixed up world are we living in where Republicans (some) end up defending a flag created by Democrats, standing for things only Democrats believe in? Let them have the flag! Take that flag out and burn it! What do we care? In fact, we (Conservatives and Republicans) should be applauding the fact that Democrats have finally seen the error of their ways.
More pragmatically, the removal of the flag is good for Republicans because it removes the issue from the upcoming presidential debate. One less irrelevant issue for the Left to point to as proof of the Republicans unworthiness to lead. I would say this crop of candidates has enough issues on that front without adding another.
I think my friend Dr. Tom Krannawitter said things much better, so I would like to share some of what he wrote recently:
South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley today called for the Confederate Battle Flag — also known as the “Southern Cross” — to be flown no more on the grounds of the South Carolina Capital. Here is one response I saw on social media, a comment from what appears to be a young woman directed at Ms. Haley, and I quote:
“F-ING RINO WHORE, TRAITOR BITCH”
Wow. Just, wow. I’m not sure which is greater in this remark, the vitriol or the confusion. I will leave it to others to figure out whether there’s any merit suggesting that Ms. Haley is either a lady-of-the-night or a female dog. But I find it almost laughable to describe her as a “RINO,” an acronym for “Republican In Name Only.”
The accusation boils down to the charge that Nikki Haley is insufficiently or in-authentically “Republican” because she wants the Confederate Battle Flag taken down from government property in South Carolina.
Facts can be inconvenient when ranting, I know, but South Carolina DEMOCRATS were fighting AGAINST Republicans in the Civil War. In fact, in it’s December 24, 1861 “Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union,” adopted only four days after its December 20 Ordinance of Secession, South Carolina proclaimed to the world that it chose secession and the risk of civil war because:
“[A] sectional party [The Republican Party]…and all the States north of that line have united in the election of a man [Abraham Lincoln] to the high office of President of the United States, whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery.”
South Carolina even quoted Republican Lincoln’s prediction that America “cannot endure permanently half slave, half free,” because South Carolina Democrats knew that the Negro slavery they enjoyed, and the white supremacy that supported slavery, was in great jeopardy as Republicans insisted that the principles of the Declaration of Independence be the foundation of any national policies, especially policies governing American territories that had yet to become states. That is exactly why South Carolina was the first of Southern slave states to declare secession from the Union — months before Lincoln became President!
In the same document, linked below if anyone cares to read the original, South Carolina Democrats thought they were being clever by quoting the revolutionary part of the Declaration – that whenever any “form of government becomes destructive of the ends for which it was established, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government” – while conveniently ignoring the first statement of first principles, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that ALL MEN are CREATED EQUAL, that they are endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable rights…”
Please, people, think before thou doth protest in ugly and stupid ways. There are many reasons that many Republicans are “RINOs.” But a Republican removing a Democrat-favored flag from the former Democrat-created Confederate States of America — when the Democratic Party of that day, the Confederate States of America, AND the Confederate Battle Flag ALL represented Negro slavery and the violent oppression of black people by white people — is NOT one of them.
In fact, it’s a very Republican thing to do. Unless you think Abraham Lincoln WANTED the Confederate Battle Flag to fly forever as a constant reminder of the cause it represented.
Join the conversation!
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, vulgarity, profanity, all caps, or discourteous behavior. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain a courteous and useful public environment where we can engage in reasonable discourse.