In 2000, John McCain received spectacularly bad advice and, in an act of cowardice, compromised his principles. As Nicholas Kristof puts it:
[Mr. McCain's] most famous pander came in 2000, when, after earlier denouncing the Confederate flag as a “symbol of racism,” he embraced it as “a symbol of heritage.” To his credit, Mr. McCain later acknowledged, “I feared that if I answered honestly I could not win the South Carolina primary, so I chose to compromise my principles.”
Fear made John McCain compromise his principles. That’s what flying the Confederate flag where our state laws are made does — it creates a culture of fear so strong that even John McCain, a war hero, compromised his principles.
And the irony of it all is that the advice was wrong. John McCain lost in South Carolina in 2000. Pandering to people who supported flying the Confederate flag at the Statehouse was not good politics in 2000. And it’s worse politics now: In 2008, Mike Huckabee tried this strategy and lost the South Carolina Republican primary to John McCain.
Something important is happening in South Carolina and around the country. In an article published today in the New York Times, Frank Rich describes some important demographics:
The authors of the new book “Millennial Makeover,” Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais, point out that the so-called millennial generation (dating from 1982) is the largest in American history, boomers included, and that roughly 40 percent of it is African-American, Latino, Asian or racially mixed. One in five millennials has an immigrant parent.
Young people love the United States of America and our racially-mixed population. They have, by large margins, embraced Barack Obama, who calls for a united future that moves us forward from our divided past. Young people are using technology to get involved in politics and to expose the truth about those who employ politically-divisive tactics.
For example, a young guy made a video about the protesters at the South Carolina NAACP’s King Day at the Dome celebration. The protesters accused people of being ignorant for associating the Confederate flag with slavery because, they said, the Confederate flag really stands for freedom. Here are some important quotes from the video:
Narrator: What do you say to people who believe the flag represents slavery and hatred and bigotry?
Protester #1: I say they’re wrong; they’re misinformed; they’re ignorant.
Narrator: You say you support the flag for what it stands for. What does it stands for?
Protester #2: For freedom. These people were invaded. South Carolina was invaded by Abraham Lincoln and Sherman and, well, by, under Lincoln’s command and Edward Stanton’s command.
Narrator: You think taking the flag down means disrespect to your ancestors?
Protester #1: Sure it does. Sure it does. As well as disrespect to me. I mean, where is my opinion? Does my opinion count?
Protester #2: We want to be a free country again. We seceded once, and we want to be, uh, the occupying forces to leave us.
Flying the Confederate flag where our state laws are made clearly supports the desire of these protesters to force their minority opinions on all of South Carolina. Their political goal is apparently to secede again, to divorce South Carolina from the United States of America. It’s time that we start listening carefully to the comments of the people who want to fly the Confederate flag where our state laws are made. I think that you will find that their goals are not historical but futuristic and frightening.
Another example is more famous because it derailed the Senate campaign and presidential hopes of George Allen, a Virginia Republican. As you probably recall, George Allen, who displayed the Confederate flag in a campaign ad in 1993, lost his bid for re-election to the U.S. Senate after he was shown in a YouTube video calling a young Indian-American “macaca” and telling him, “Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia.”
As Frank Rich states in today’s article, Allen’s loss in 2006 shows that “it is Mr. Allen who is the foreigner in 21st century America, Mr. Allen who is in the minority in the real world of Virginia.” According to Rich, “a national rout in 2008″ just may be the “last stand” of those who continue to use divisive politics as a way to garner votes.
As the South Carolina 2008 primaries confirm, it is state senator Glenn F. McConnell who is the minority in the real world of South Carolina. As a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, Secession Camp #4, he pledges allegiance to the Confederate flag and embraces the charge of “vindication of the cause” for which the Confederate soldiers fought.
John McCain now says that the Confederate soldiers “fought on the wrong side of American history.” Well, not only is Sen. McConnell on the wrong side of American history, he is on the wrong side of America’s present and future.
Our time is now to overcome the bullying intimidation that people like Sen. McConnell and the King Day protesters use to create a climate of fear in South Carolina. Let’s make 2008 the last stand for those politicians who support the flying of the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds.
1 Comment
February 23, 2008 at 11:16 am
KEEP IT FLYING.