01 Mar 2000 Let That Stupid Flag Fly! by R.D. Davis

A New Visions Commentary paper published March 2000 by The National Center
for Public Policy Research, 501 Capitol Ct., N.E., Washington, DC 20002, 202/543-4110, Fax 202-543-5975, E-Mail [email protected], Web
https://nationalcenter.org. Reprints permitted provided source
is credited.

Are you sick and tired of all the ruckus and brouhaha over that stupid Confederate battle flag?

True, flying the flag above South Carolina’s state capitol is not about heritage. It was a racist response by southern "yellow dog" Democrats in 1962 to challenge the growing power of the civil rights movement. Let me remind you that it was the southern Democrats who not only exploited black slaves in the land of Dixie, but also voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (including Senator Albert Gore – Vice President Al Gore’s father). Northern Democrats and Republicans together overwhelmingly supported the Act (you can check it out for yourself in Congressional Quarterly, 2/14/64, p. 334). Since those racist southern Democrats put the flag up there in the first place, let today’s yellow dogs take it down rather than use it as a political weapon. It makes a lot of sense to me.

Like black economist Dr. Walter Williams has noted, this is not about a flag. If it were so, the NAACP and Jesse Jackson would be protesting the American flag, not the Confederate one, because slavery existed much longer under Old Glory than during the brief life of the Confederacy. In addition, the "Stars and Bars" being protested is the battle flag, not the national flag of the Confederacy.

This flag balderdash is all about the NAACP and their allies and the yellow dog Democratic establishment finding an issue to demonize Republicans. Republicans rightfully believe that the flag is a state issue. The federal government should not get involved in a state or local issue unless there is a clear violation of individual rights and freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution (as it did with institutionalized slavery and segregation). Republicans, in fact, actually led the vanguard against the racist southern Democrats’ opposition to involve the federal government in ending slavery and segregation.

But the Republican’s "dog ain’t in this fight." If the American people (especially blacks) knew the truth, they would realize this whole controversy is absurd. Contrary to what we have been brainwashed to believe, southern Democrats were responsible for hoisting the Confederate battle flag and standing up for what the flag may or may not represent. As a matter of historical fact, Republicans could not even get elected to Congress in the "Deep South" states of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana during the 1960s. Why? It was because southern whites were still angry with Republicans for freeing the slaves! Today, since southern Democrats pretend to love us so much (but it’s all phony), all that Jackson and the NAACP’s Kweisi Mfume should have to do is ask the yellow dogs like President Bill Clinton, Gore and South Carolina Governor Jim Hodges to take the flag down. After all, it is the southern Democrats’ responsibility to do so nowadays.

And if that Confederate battle flag comes down, so what? What is so frightening about a piece of cloth? That flag is not responsible for the moral decline of our country that allows 400,000 black babies to die from abortions (some paid for with your tax dollars) each year. This is the fault of liberal Democrat social policy. That flag is not responsible for our high illegitimate birth rate of approximately 70% and weak family structure. The Confederate battle flag is not responsible for our high black-on-black crime rate; it’s our not demanding tougher black-on-black crime laws. And that flag is not responsible for, according to Education Week, the fact that 58% of black fourth graders in the inner cities cannot read – blame the teachers unions and their supporters who oppose school choice for parents.

There are more serious and pressing issues that our race needs to solve. Unfortunately, there are those who would rather create more bogus racist situations to keep us focused only on what they perceive as racism. We should just let them chase those flags up the flagpoles and focus ourselves on solving our own race’s problems instead of letting Big Government try to do it for us. I’m too busy thinking about real problems. They can let their stupid flag fly for all I care.