There are other flags of the confederacy that are not so inflammatory. The Repubs in SC have wanted to get that flag off the dome, and they did fifteen years ago, and the dead parson of the Methodist church voted with the Republican in compromise to put the flag in a little corner with a memorial to civil war dead.
I know there are those who resent this canard and the forced takedown of the flag, but it is a Democrat relic, racist Democrats like Byrd and Hollings, and we should not defend it
So the 1A only protects non offensive speech. Boy wouldn’t the founders be surprised.
I’m not southern. I’m as far north a Yankee as one can get by birth. I have no connection with the flag. I do have a connection with free speech. And that freedom means protecting what SOME view as racist speechwhether it is racist as they think or whether they are simply bandwagoning. Because the alternative is the mob freakout when they get you your sacred cow.