Moulitsas: Republicans have a flag problem

After last week’s terrorist attack that killed nine at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., Republicans are tied up in knots over the question of removing the Confederate battle flag from that state’s Capitol grounds. 

This shouldn’t be a controversial issue. The Confederate flag is explicitly a symbol of racial supremacy that should be long extinct in today’s world. 

{mosads}The first Confederate flag — the Stars and Bars — was similar in design to the American flag, except it had just three horizontal bars (the top and bottom red) and the white stars were arranged in a circle. However, this proved confusing in combat, and some were offended by the similarities to the flag flown by American patriots. As one editorial in the Savannah Morning News made explicit, it was offensive “on account of its resemblance to that of the abolition despotism against which we are fighting.”

Therefore, a second Confederate flag was pressed into action, the “stainless banner.” This flag was mostly white, with the infamous Confederate battle flag in the corner — the star-bedecked blue “X” (or “Southern Cross”) over a red box. The flag’s designer, William Thompson, called it “the white man’s flag,” and wrote, “As a people, we are fighting to maintain the Heaven-ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race; a white flag would thus be emblematic of our cause.” Another newspaper editor, George Bagby of the Southern Literary Messenger, was equally pleased: “The truth is, we shall see the Southern Cross ere the destiny of the Southern master and his African slave is accomplished.”

The Confederacy then adopted a third flag, adding a red vertical band, because all that whiteness also suggested the white flag of surrender. But ultimately, there is no doubt about the meaning of that flag. It was a symbol against abolition and racial harmony, and a symbol of treason. And that’s the reason that Southern Republicans — supposed patriots! — continue to fight for its preservation to this very day. 

Why else have GOP presidential wannabes struggled with new calls to take down the Confederate flag from the South Carolina Statehouse grounds? It’s no coincidence that the state will stage the third contest of the presidential primary season, as the first Southern state to vote (and the most conservative). So if your presidential aspirations depend on white racist voters, what to do? 

For these Republicans, being brave and principled certainly isn’t an option.

Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor, and Rick Santorum, former Pennsylvania senator, tried to weasel out of saying the right thing by claiming it was a state rights issue. “Everyone’s being baited with this question as if it has anything to do whatsoever with running for president,” said Huckabee, because he doesn’t think stamping out racism has anything to do with the presidency. 

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas thinks that talking about the flag whose entire purpose for existing was to divide people both as a race and as a nation is merely “a wedge to try to divide people.” Sen. Marco Rubio said he expected South Carolina to “make the right choice for the people of South Carolina.” Just don’t ask him what he thinks that right decision should be; as a Florida state legislator, he fought to keep the Confederate flag on state grounds. Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida, hemmed and hawed for days before finally endorsing bringing down the flag.

So should states be flying a flag that symbolizes racial division and treason against the United States? The answer is easy. Unless you are a Republican.

Moulitsas is the founder and publisher of Daily Kos.