January 10, 2008

Will Confederate Flag Ambush GOP In South Carolina?

By Tim Manning

No telling if Fox News will even ask about the Confederate flag in tonight’s GOP presidential candidates debate in South Carolina. (Yes, Ron Paul will be there). And if they do, they’re likely to ask the wrong thing: what do the candidates think of the Confederate flag that now flies, an awkward compromise, out in front of the South Carolina State House?

The correct question would ignore that relatively minor state policy issue. It would be: what do the candidates think of the Confederate flag in general? The red hot angry railing against the Confederate flag is the most symptomatic issue in cultural Marxism’s campaign to abolish America. To the commissars of political correctness, the Confederate flag has become the most reviled symbol in the country.

The Confederate flag issue is still very much alive in South Carolina. It’s the issue that lingers beneath the surface of everything political in South Carolina. Eight years ago, it’s what the South Carolina primary was all about. McCain flip-flopped and Bush fooled us. [See Enemies, Not Friends, Of Confederate Flag Want War, by Sam Francis, May 5, 2000]

This is the buzz today among Southern Heritage activists as we come up to the pivotal South Carolina primary next Saturday, January 19:

Romney was a disaster. McCain is disgusting. Fred Thompson is trying to fool us. Giuliani is against us. And Huckabee is the worst of all―worships Lincoln and says college scholarships for illegal immigrants are atonement for slavery.

All the while, Ron Paul is making the defense—not just stressing states’ rights, but also questioning the need for the Civil War at all. (He recommends Tom DiLorenzo’s book The Real Lincoln.)

It’s not well known, but George W. Bush and Cheney started a new policy for the president and vice president of the U.S.: never appear in the presence of a Confederate flag. (As governor of Texas, Bush even went out of his way to remove a tiny memorial plaque from the Texas Supreme Court building in the dark of night.)

Even Bill Clinton didn’t duck the flag, and neither did Bush, Sr. Of course, Reagan didn’t. And for Nixon and Ford, the Confederate flag was vital part of their campaigns in the South.

The neocon position on the flag is that it does not exist. Southerners are Orwellian “unpersons” and can be taken for granted as token mindless drones, like blacks are by the Democratic Party. When the entire national press visited the offices of the magazine I work for, Southern Partisan, during the 2000 primary, Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard dropped in. He said he liked Southern Partisan—but would lose his job if he told anybody.

Watch the debate tonight. The League of the South and other Southern Heritage organizations will be there. If their question is asked, don’t be surprised to see some controversial hollering and post-debate interviews.

And if the question is not asked, it will be. While the South Carolina Republican primary is on January 19, the Democrats are waiting to hold theirs on January 26.  That’s five days after the King Day at the Dome rally put on by the NAACP every year on the steps of the South Carolina State House—at the foot of where the Confederate flag now flies.

One time, the late Reverend E.X. Slave (a local street protest character) even mounted the pole and set the flag on fire.

In past years, the NAACP has claimed to have drawn as many as 50,000 supporters. This year promises to break all records.

Hillary and Obama are both scheduled to give speeches. Inevitably they will compete to denigrate the battle flag.

Things could get emotional.