Why would he? First, everyone knows that some people squeal about it. Otherwise it wouldn't be a question he was asked. Second, anything anyone does is going to offend someone (hold open a door for a woman sometime: 95% will say thank you and 5% will spit on you for being misogynistic). No one cares if you are offended; that's your problem. We need to go back to a society that wasn't so weak and fragile, where giving offense is somehow the worst possible sin. I'm not responsible for your feelings.
I never understood why the American Flag wasnt good enough for southerners.
I've read enough of your replies to doubt that you actually want to know the answer, but I'll respond for those who are genuinely curious. Ever met someone from NYC? How long did it take before they told you? I know a lot, and quite a few wear their regional pride on their sleeve. They feel there is a certain cachet associated with coming from the nations largest and most famous city. They also believe that the city has a different culture, set of attitudes, and outlook on life than other cities around the nation. Whether right or wrong, they feel a regional "pride" in their place of birth.
Ever met someone from New Orleans? Quite a bit of regional pride there, too. Hawaii? Boston? Texas? Regional pride seems to be a perfectly acceptable concept... unless it is for the Southeastern states. I think it goes hand-in-hand with the arrogance Northeasterners often display towards rural Americans (hicks, red-necks, flyover country, etc.), but some of it is also just competing regional pride. You put Vermont in your screen name. Why? Does it matter? Would you get upset if someone said that Vermont was a waste of a state, where bed-and-breakfasts should be the state symbol and two men holding hands on the state flag? What would it matter, right? You'd be rightly indignant at a slur against someplace you love and identify with.
No, the fact is that many people recognize that the South has a different culture and set of values than other parts of the U.S. (and for a while, especially in the 80s and 90s, that rural, working-class and ruggedly individualistic mindset was an obstacle to the globalist, nanny-state-loving, urban values promoted by the Democrats and the Deep Staters). You may not celebrate that culture, but they have every right to, and the Confederacy was a historical (and easy shorthand) part of that culture.
Well stated.
The south voted almost unanimously for FDR 2 times, and FDR 4 times. Only recently has it switched places with New England.