Posted on 06/21/2015 2:49:11 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Ted Cruz said Saturday that the Confederate flag flying in front of their statehouse is “a question for South Carolina” to decide.
He is not alone. Marco Rubio said the same: “This is an issue that they should debate and work through and not have a bunch of outsiders going in and telling them what to do.” Scott Walker and Carly Fiorina also feel it is an issue for South Carolina alone to decide.
Funny. I seem to recall South Carolina trying to decide that issue in 1861, when on April 12 they opened fire on Fort Sumter, inaugurating the Civil War.
Also, as I recall, they lost. The flag they waved at the end was white.
That should have been an end to that affair.
By the vote of an all-white legislature, a Confederate flag was raised once again above the South Carolina statehouse in 1962. In 2000, another vote removed it, and placed a square battle flag – oddly, the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia – over a monument to Confederate dead. This is the flag that is, in the wake of the Charleston massacre, the point of contention between Democrats and Republicans.
The flag chosen was not the national colors of the Confederacy – or even of South Carolina – though it did form a component of the second (1863) and third (1865) national flag.
It may have been raised in 1962 because that year was during the Civil War Centennial. It may also have been a reactionary white racist response to the Civil Rights Movement. Opinions differ. Perhaps both accounts are true.
The point is this: there is no long, unbroken tradition of this flag flying in the vicinity of the statehouse since the Civil War.
It is not even a South Carolina flag, nor the Confederacy’s national flag. There is nothing special about it even for descendants of Confederate soldiers unless their ancestors served in the Army of northern Virginia.
In other words, it is a peculiar way of honoring South Carolina’s Civil War dead and likely one that would not have been understood by the Civil War generation.
Ted Cruz ignores all this. Cruz wants us to believe he is a reasonable man, the voice of impartiality, a claim he threw away when he claimed Democrats were using the flag as a “wedge” issue:
"I understand the passions that this debate evokes on both sides. Both those who see a history of racial oppression and a history of slavery, which is the original sin of our nation, and we fought a bloody civil war to expunge that sin.
But I also understand those who want to remember the sacrifices of their ancestors and the traditions of their states, not the racial oppression, but the historical traditions, and I think often this issue is used as a wedge to try to divide people."
NAACP President Cornell Brooks admits there are different viewpoints here, but he has a different answer: “Yes, there may be multiple sides to this debate, but clearly we all have to be on the side of those who lost their lives in a church.”
According to Cruz, however, “the last thing they need is people from outside the state coming in and dictating how they should resolve that issue.”
That’s funny. Last time – I’m talking 1861 again – South Carolina needed all kinds of help. The Confederate march, “The Bonnie Blue Flag” tells us (third and fourth verses below),
First gallant South Carolina nobly made the stand Then came Alabama and took her by the hand Next, quickly Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida All raised on high the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.
Ye men of valor gather round the banner of the right Texas and fair Louisiana join us in the fight Davis, our loved President, and Stephens statesmen rare Now rally round the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star.
Never mind that the song’s writer, Harry McCarthy, got the order of secession wrong in the third verse. The point to be made is that South Carolina had ten other states siding with it, rather than leaving it to South Carolina to decide alone. People from outside certainly did have a say in 1861.
In response, other states, known as the Union – twenty free states and five border states – stood up to oppose the Confederacy’s defense of slavery. We all – the entire nation – helped South Carolina with its “flag” issue.
It was very much a national affair then, and it is very much a national affair now. The wedge issue then as now is racism, and the rebel flag represents that wedge.
The Army of Northern Virginia’s battle flag is not the American flag. It is the flag of traitors. Of traitors whose cause was lost a century-and-a-half ago. It has no business flying over any state capitol.
Ted Cruz is wrong when he says this is South Carolina’s affair only and there is an answer to him: The NAACP has a long-standing boycott in place due to the flag. Brooks points out that,
“One of the ways we can bring that flag down is by writing to companies, engaging companies that are thinking about doing business in South Carolina, speaking to the governor, speaking to the legislature and saying the flag has to come down.”
If we, as a Nation, can make the State of Indiana stand up and take notice, as we did in the case of their RFRA directed at gays, we can certainly have the same effect on South Carolina for flying a symbol of hatred directed at blacks.
Not even slightly. First of all, there is more to life than Internet discussion forums. But If supporting a fine, qualified candidate like scott walker can get your posting right revoked, then, then that tells you more about the value of your posting rights than anything else.
The only reason why the confederate flag became an emblem in the south is because of the Dixiecrats using it in 1948.
What crybabies you are. Point to even one poster zotted just because they didn’t “support” Ted Cruz. Hell, there are numerous Trump, Romney, Bush and Christie supporters here. Get over yourselves.
nasty indeed. seems to happen in every thread, and it’s always the same actors.
now you’re trying to act like you never posted 12 or 17, which is sort of irrational.
Our would be masters think themselves so powerful that they can dictate what a state flag must look like. Soon, they will want us to line the roads and cheer as they pass by in their motorcades. Those of us not cheering robustly enough will be sent to re-education camps, where we will be... processed. Screw them.
I was asking if you didn’t understand sarcasm, because English might not be your strongest language. Scott sure is drawing in the intelligentsia, isn’t he?
Uh huh.
Pretty ballsy statement for Lindsey but its nice to see that he stands for something.
The author’s point that there is no unbroken tradition of that flag is irrelevant to Cruz’ point, which is that South Carolina gets to select her own flag. All the window dressing doesn’t even touch that argument.
Take a look at Booker T. Washington on Black Victimhood.
I’m sure he remembers what happened to the Mississippi Democratic governor who tried to get rid of the stars & bars on their state flag about 10 or15 years ago.
jeez. you got angry and said something stupid, which seems to happen a lot, and now you can’t seem to disengage.
Ted Cruz is a fine senator and a compelling presidential candidate, but he seems to attract a lot of constantly angry people. Seriously. Nearly unhinged.
Bush III?! No way, guess you haven’t been reading on FreeRepublic much. I was one of the first to donate to and support Cruz. I’ve tired of his non-answers on illegal alien amnesty, on his trade positions, and so forth. But I’ll sit out before I vote for Bush III, his stab-in-the-back shadow Rubio, Christie, Fiorina, and most of the others. Walker is possible but I tire of the spamming a couple of his supporters do to support him. Right now it is a free-for-all and I like the pot stirring that Trump brings to the mix. Doubt we’ll have the chance to vote Clinton or Trump, but that would be interesting. His policies are not a consideration to me at the moment—he’s already made perfectly clear on the key ones: illegal aliens, the border, US exceptionalism/nationalism, restoring America. The others also have their points and lots to consider. Right now, I am railing on anyone that does not want to give a straight answer to questions, who doesn’t have the conviction to give clear yes/no answers.
You apparently missed the section in the history books about the Article of Confederation and Shay's Rebellion while you were pondering that question. The purpose of the U.S Constitution was to create a stronger federal government. The federalists who wrote articles in favor of ratifying the U.S. Constition WANTED a stronger national government. The anti-federalists, who were AGAINST ratifying the U.S. Constituiton, wanted to maintain the state-driven government that existed under the Article of Confederation.
I said nothing that I didn’t mean. Chew on that.
We all know the stars & bars did not cause this punk kid to murder 9 innocents. Just another example of opportunism on the left.
Idiotic “gotcha” questions don’t even deserve a legitimate answer.
“Cruz makes a great poster boy for non-answers. ... If he was to be a winning candidate, a leader, he needs to offer clarity, not non-answers. No sympathy to him and is coy games.”
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The Left always tells you who they fear...and they fear Ted Cruz mightily. He’s far too intelligent to fall into any of the “traps” that they set for him and thus avoids giving them ammunition with which they could pound him. The Left appears to find this VERY frustrating...and apparently you do also.
Actually, he did give an answer:
“Sen. Ted Cruz says whether or not South Carolina removes the Confederate flag from a state house memorial is an issue for the state to decide...”
You and the Left may not like that answer but it’s an honest one. And it’s a CONSTITUTIONAL CONSERVATIVE answer. I suspect that Ted Cruz will continue to leave both you and the leftist media very frustrated.
Deal with it...you won’t find Ted Cruz to be another Akin dim-wit committing political suicide.
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