How the Confederate flag flap helped the GOP
Democratic governors in South Carolina and Georgia lost at least partly because of their courageous stands against a divisive symbol of racism.
The Republicans' historic victories in last week's midterm elections owed a great deal to a surge in white voter turnout in the rural South, notably in South Carolina and Georgia, where incumbent Democratic governors, as well as U.S. Senate candidates, went down to crushing and surprising defeats. One factor largely ignored by the media was the way the ongoing controversy over the official display of divisive Confederate emblems also helped to galvanize angry white voters. So while Democrats debate whether their stance on Iraq hurt them last week, Republicans ought to worry about whether their debt to pro-Confederate flag voters might have gained them victory now at the cost of future races...more [Salon]
This is a good article that goes to the heart of the dark side of the Republican party. They have done such a good job selling the anti-tax story that people fail to see that the Party of Lincoln has turned into the party of frustrated white racist, and rich people looking for another tax handout. They have suckered the tired middle class into thinking that they can get things for free. While the Democrats try to redistribute wealth downstream, the republican party is all about moving it back upstream. That's why the tax cut will become etched into law -- its major benefits went to the wealthy.
Let's make one point very clear - The Civil War was about slavery, the South's support of it, and the North's opposition to it. It was a war on the part of the South to retain a way of life, the plantation life - Slavery. The Confederate flag is a symbol of racial injustice. It is a symbol of a time and people who wanted to keep blacks enslaved, nothing more, nothing less - so get over it. If an individual wants to support slavery, that's their constitutional right - but governments are for all the people and should not be put in the position of supporting symbols of racial hate. It would be no different then flying the Nazi flag over the capitol buildings in Olympia, Trenton, Albany, Montgomery, Augusta, or Columbia. Just as we would no sooner raise the flag of racial genocide, we should never raise with pride the flag of Slavery.
On a side note, it is nice to see that Salon has started allowing you to see premium material by viewing an ad, I hope they keep that up. To see this whole article and other material for the day, all I had to do was go through a brief four page interactive car ad - good idea Salon!...mj
10:54:30 AM 
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