A Confederate Flag Flying History Lesson From Ebola
So, over the past three days I’ve had to rebut some pretty stretched logic, repeatedly, so screw it, here’s my take on the South Carolina (SC) bit:
First, history lessons, the colloquial “Confederate Flag” is not, nor has ever, represented the Confederate States of America (CSA), in fact it was proposed as a replacement for the Stars and Bars and rejected. The battle flag, that saw use from the Battle of Manassas onward as the CSA battle standard, was the Southern Cross, the colloquial modern day “Confederate flag”. There is a large difference between battle standards and national flags, battle standards allow you to find, follow or recover position with the rest of your group, which is the reason it replaced the Stars and Bars on the battle field, as the original CSA flag, the Stars and Bars, looked too much like Union colors, which caused confusion within the ranks during pitched battles.
Why did the Southern Cross become the colloquial “Confederate flag”? The answer is a combination of general ignorance, which is on rampant display currently in both social and corporate media, and it’s adoption by a number of less than savory groups in the South, from the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), directly after the war, to the Democratic Dixiecrats, who tried to make sure that the mistakes of the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) case, Plessy v Ferguson, remained the norm in the 1940s. Arguing that the Southern Cross doesn’t have negative connotations is as equally ignorant as arguing that the Southern Cross is indeed the national flag of the Confederacy, but we’ll get back to that.
While the Dixiecrats effectively lost their push to make sure that “separate, but equal” from Plessy v Ferguson remained in effect, effectively co-mingled property segregation, their remnants were successful in 1962 of getting the Southern Cross flag flown over the capitol dome of the SC Statehouse. It would remain there for just shy of forty years. In 2000 it was removed, under a compromise, and place next to the Confederate monument; the compromise itself required a two-thirds majority to remove it from grounds. Keep in mind, this is a battle standard, not a national flag, not put in place to honor the individuals concerned with the monument. The flag is not lowered while the United States national flag flies at half-staff, which is nothing short of atrocious.
Make no mistake, the Southern Cross has very negative post-war historical connotations. I’ve seen it repeatedly stated that this is about “heritage” the past few days, but if that were true, there’d be no issue with removing the battle standard and instead putting one of the actual three CSA national flags in it’s place: none of which have an iota on the Southern Cross for negative impact, even with fighting a war partly about slavery. Personally, I’d say the Blood-Stained Banner, the last of the three, is quite likely the most accurate as it was the flag under which the Confederacy lost and was one of the flags surrendered at Appomattox. While both the Stainless and Bloodied Banners bear the Southern cross, they are not the Southern Cross which was adopted by a multitude of blatantly racist groups for more than 150 years of American history. Though, I doubt the multitude of people on the other side arguing racism would see a difference, so the actual Stars and Bars might be a better choice to fly.
This is a State decision, regardless of how much anyone argues it: it’s statute, SC will do as it does. However, let’s not pretend there aren’t better options than the hyperbole of either side of either restoring it to the State capitol statehouse or the absolute removal of a historical remembrance, from State grounds or personal property. This particular flag that is being argued over, is not a part of the war memorial, but added to the lower State grounds to remove it from the dome.
Personally? Replace it with the Stars and Bars, solves most of the issues on both sides. The actual one, not the one that talking heads keep claiming is the CSA battle standard. Plessy vs Ferguson might be one of the worst decisions in the history of any non-tyranical, statutorily guided nation in the history of human kind. I hope the members of the Justice Brown SCOTUS are turning in their graves.
Life, Military Thingies, Morality, Nanny State, Planet Ebola, Politics | tree hugging sister | 
June 24, 2015 12:42 pm
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The entire scorched earth jihad against the Confederate Flag is nothing more than a prolonged temper tantrum by the left because they were denied rioting and violence in the wake of nine black people slaughtered by a white scumbag thug.
For several years the left has been on a fishing expedition for a racist crime committed by a white man against a black victim and each time they thought they had a winner it turned out to be a bust usually followed by rioting, looting and violence regardless. Then along comes the murder of nine black people in an historic church by a sack of trash racist punk not even old enough or experienced enough to have any kind of grudge against anyone, let alone nine black church-going Christians who even welcomed this devil into their group.
Finally, the left had their blood-soaked story to buttress their narrative that white America is a hopelessly racist and evil group of people who lived and breathed to wage violence and savagery against the poor and downtrodden black America. But what happened next doubtlessly sent the left into a bout of monumental apoplexy.
The people of Charleston, South Carolina didn’t riot. They didn’t loot. They didn’t reduce their neighborhoods to ruins and assault their neighbors. They actually joined together in solidarity and grieved together regardless of color. By the thousands. They as a community, in the truest sense of the word, rejected hate and chose love. Worst of all for the left, the families of the murdered innocents chose to FORGIVE the racist thug punk for his horrible crimes.
I’ve no doubt in my mind that the left sees the example set by the good people of Charleston as a betrayal. I’ve also no doubt that the left thinks of those families as sell-outs and Uncle Toms for their act of forgiveness though they would never have the guts and honesty to admit any of it out loud.
Which brings us to this current purge against the Confederate flag and various memorials. A purge which serves two purposes. One, it allows the left to wage a war of extinction against whites especially of the southern variety in effigy to try and sate their bloodlust. Second, and most importantly it allows the left to take the focus away from the the community of Charleston and their unified stand against hate, despair and vengeance in favor of love, hope, and grace and keep their crippled false narrative.
May the people of Charleston find their peace and become an even stronger and more faithful community and may the provocateurs, race-baiters, and agitators be swallowed by the very bitterness, anger, rage they seek to sow.
At the same time, if (as per the lefties) the Confederate battle flag is inherently evil and racist, and must be banned, where is their outrage against other flags of evil and racist nations? To wit (and by no means complete):
Iran: Hangs homosexuals, oppresses women
Saudi Arabia: Hangs homosexuals, oppresses women
Soviet Union: At least one count of attempted genocide (Ukraine)
Vietnam: post-war concentration camps
People’s Republic of China: The massacres before and at Tienanmen Square. Occupation and colonization of Tibet. Destruction of the environment.
North Korea: Offenses against humanity to numerous to list here. Suffice it to say, Norkland is a s**thole for a reason.
Cuba: Political and economic oppression.
Venezuela: See Cuba above.
Last, and by no means least: The Third Reich.
And on and on and on.
Yet what do we hear about them. Nada. Hell, half the nations listed above embrace a lot of the Nazi principles and beliefs. Check out the Apple store; there are plenty of WWII games up for sale. Nazi dogma is still killing innocent people, yet the left stays quiet. Hell, you can buy Nazi bling on eBay.
This current media blitz is what Guns points out, it’s a purge. One that we should not acknowledge, and certainly one that we should fight against. We should not sate the bloodlust of the left, because that’s a hunger that can’t be satisfied. Certainly not by giving in to them.
Charleston has right, and the race baiters need to be beaten into the ground. Falling on our knees is not the way to do that.
If — and I emphasize IF — people decide that the Rebel Battle Flag comes down, it should not be an emotional response to the actions of one sick bastard, amplified by a media and political machine that does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING positive for the Republic. They never have, and never will.
PS:
A point that I missed above, but eloquently stated by another blogger:
“A Dangerous Precedent“.
Ironic that you would frame the Plessy vs Ferguson case as the worst ever decision by the SCOTUS, on the very day that the worst every decision by the SCOTUS occurred.
Now Syd, Ebola wrote this the day BEFORE…
Hah! Still close enough in time to qualify for the irony badge.
Thanks, Ebola – I’ve been leaving polite little “but that’s NOT the Confederate flag” comments here and there and linking to Wikipedia. I’ll start linking to this now. 😛