Well said and it looks like we're in the minority here. I realize that Free Republic is not a GOP site, marching in lockstep with the Republican party. But is surely is an anti-liberal and thus anti-DemonRAT forum. That's why I find it odd that so many here are supporting a flag that, throughout history, is part and parcel of the political party that opposed not only Lincoln but also Ronald Reagan.
Two reasons, I think.
1.) That flag, a 36” square Army of Northern Virginia battle flag reproduction, is flying BEHIND a monument to the Confederate dead of South Carolina. The ANV was where the vast majority of South Carolinian soldiers fought in the WBTS. It is a soldiers’ flag, flying at a soldiers’ monument. Yes, it is on the Statehouse grounds, on one edge. There’s also a lot of other monuments on the Statehouse grounds, including ones to Strom Thurmond and (gag) Jesse Jackson. Do we blow those up too? That flag is not in anyone’s face. Hell, I know the exact spot where that monument is, I drove by it every day for six years. You have to look very hard to see it, especially on windless days.
2.) As somebody who lived through the initial flag flap in SC circa 1999, and who supported taking it off the Statehouse roof and putting it where it is now, I can tell you for a straight-up fact that this will do exactly NOTHING to satisfy the leftist racists in the NAACP and their ilk. Not one thing. Haley will get no credit, the news media will see to that. All that will happen is that the flag will be taken down and then the NAACP, in the manner of extortionists everywhere, will say, “that’s nice, now remove the monument to the Confederate dead or the protests continue.”
I am sick of constantly backing up. I am sick of being Southern (Virginia native, lived in the Southeast my entire life) and being automatically assumed to be a racist redneck. I am sick of the heritage of my ancestors being shat on by people who extend 2015 sensibilities into an 1860 world. I am sick of leftists who see all things Confederate as evil, full stop. And I’m sick of leftists who have taken crass advantage of a horrific tragedy and the sick puppy who caused it, before the victims are even in the ground.
These people do not deserve dialogue. They do not deserve compromise. They deserve nothing but contempt.
}:-)4