SC primary and the Confederate Flag

[TBird41]

1) I would also like to hear Boz' treatise on the Duke boys

2) Bando fails this thread for responding seriously to a Simpson's quote.

[AustinHoya03]

Jan 23, 2008 0:02:52 GMT -5 @jerseyhoya34 said:

The point is that southern displays in or near state houses give the confederate flag undue standing in our official, governmental discourse, whether or not it takes the place of the winners' flag. The idea of putting the Confederate Flag atop the State House with the Stars and Stripes says something symbolically about the Confederate Flag and gives it standing that was not won on the battlefield of the Civil War and in history.

My point was intended to be about government policy, although it could have been put more artfully and should have been more nuanced. In Germany, Iraq, Vietnam, and Afghanistan, the point remains that the official governments have rejected the losers' flags as such in public spaces regardless of what individuals do on their own turf. Some of these governments, including Vietnam, purge losers' flags on private property.

If other flags were flown exclusively in former CSA states, you might have a point. But state flags are often flown beneath the Stars and Stripes, which everyone recognizes and respects (as much as you do, believe it or not) as the nation's flag.

Every state in this nation is a separate sovereign. Every state has a right to choose and fly its own flag. This choice is made by democratically-elected legislators. If Georgia votes tomorrow to change its state flag to a Union Jack with the words "We Miss British Rule" emblazoned across the front, there is nothing you, I, or anyone not a resident of Georgia can do about it. And I wouldn't really care.

I have heard many times that some Southern state flags are offensive to blacks. It's my own opinion that in many cases that statement is true, due to the timing and nature of putting Confederate symbols on these flags. However, I don't think I've ever heard that these flags are offensive to the Union itself. I think that argument relies on a misunderstanding of what the Civil War "decided." It was only one thing -- that it's illegal for a state to secede from the Union.

[vcjack]

The original Luke Duke (Tom Wopat) is a cousin of mine and is not actually a southerner

That's my contribution to this debate