What exactly were the Dartmouth conservatives trying to say by carrying Confederate flags to Howard Dean’s speech on higher education?
Is this really a topic that the Republican Party wants to delve into?
After all, now that the party of Lincoln is led by Jefferson Davis’ ideological descendants, the Confederate flag is an revered symbol for many Republicans.
Georgia Republican Sonny Purdue made restoring the Stars and Bars emblem to the state flag a key theme of his 2002 campaign to become governor.
The Republicans in South Carolina have fought a similar battle around the battle emblem on their state flag. Don’t forget that candidate Bush pandered to the pro-Reb flag sentiment during his savage attack on John McCain in the South Carolina primary, meekly refusing to offer a personal opinion on the flag, saying only that the decision should be left up to South Carolina. (Do the Dartmouth righties want Bush to clarify that now?)
McCain, to his regret, kept quiet about the obvious offensiveness of making non-white citizens live under a racist symbol.
And it’s not just a Southern thing.
Last year in Washington State, a Democratic lawmaker stumbled across an old highway marker proclaiming that State Route 99, the main North-South highway before I-5 was built, is the “Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway.”
He did some research and discovered that it in fact the highway is still technically named in honor of the only president of the CSA.
The Democrats figured it would be an appropriate symbolic gesture to rename the highway after one of Washington’s early African-American pioneers. That is, someone who actually contributed to the state.
Non-controversial? No. Washington Republicans fought tooth and nail to keep the highway’s pro-Confederate name, even though Washington wasn’t a state during the Civil War and certainly has no Confederate heritage to preserve.
Sadly, they won.
Anyway, it's good to know that we've moved beyond racial politics to a color blind society - especially in the enlightened North.
We don't need no stinkin' affirmative action or anti-discrimination laws or voting rights cases.
Life is good.
Posted by: Jordan Barab | 11/14/2003 at 12:52 PM