Here’s a sentence that I don’t think I have ever typed: Hillary Clinton, Christopher Dodd and Joe Biden are all absolutely correct.
What are they right about? The Confederate Battle flag and South Carolina’s Statehouse grounds: (via the AP):
“I think about how many South Carolinians have served in our military and who are serving today under our flag and I believe that we should have one flag that we all pay honor to, as I know that most people in South Carolina do every single day,” Clinton told The Associated Press in an interview.
”I personally would like to see it removed from the Statehouse grounds,” the New York senator said during her first trip to the early voting state since announcing her White House bid.
Other Democratic hopefuls, including Sens. Joe Biden and Chris Dodd, have said the flag should come down. The banner, which once flew over the Statehouse dome and now flies nearby, is the subject of an ongoing NAACP boycott.
Now, tying the whole thing to the war strikes me as a rhetorical stretch, or a way of stating her opinion while linking it to a patriotic issue to deflect criticism. Quite frankly, war or not, there is no reason to continue to display the flag in the way it is being displayed in this case.
I used to think that the ongoing brouhaha over the Battle Flag was overblown–until I moved to the deep south (i.e., Alabama). Living here, where slavery was once a brutal reality, and where a substantial proportion of the population is black, I often think how I would feel having a symbol of the Civil War extolled in the way that the Battle Flag is (amongst other things). Nostalgia for the “Old South” is nothing less than romanticizing an era in which a set of human beings were held as property. How could we ever want to pretend like there is something noble about that element of our past?
In South Carolina in particular, the flag in question was raised over the State Capitol in direct defiance of desegregation orders in regards to public schools.
The symbol in question is saturated with racial enmity. What purpose is served by pretending that this is not the case?
Update: I agree with McQ that the ritualistic nature of this issue (i.e., presidential candiates dealing with it every four years) is tiresome. However, I do think (as I note above) that there is a deeper principle here regardless of the shallowness of politicians. As such, I think that the idea of demurring on this issue is the incorrect route.
February 20th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
Hillary’s just released her 50th policy position regarding Iraq, now it’s we stay 90 more days, and that’s it….talk about consistency!! Please see the short video here:
http://minor-ripper.blogspot.com/2007/02/hillary-on-iraq-from-this-weekend.html
February 20th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
Nostalgia for the “Old South” is nothing less that romanticizing an era in which a set of human beings were held as property. How could we ever want to pretend like there is something noble about that element of our past?
Your getting soft, Taylor. The next thing you know, you’ll be advocating for going back to the original pledge of allegiance and doing away with the “under god” superfluousness!
February 21st, 2007 at 11:11 am
On Barring the Stars and Bars
Historian John Steele Gordon responds to Hillary Clinton’s call to remove (purge?) the Confederate flag fro…