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DEL.ICIO.USOn Romney, Thompson and the Confederate battle flag
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A South Carolina chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans is going after Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson for comments they made about the Confederate battle flag during last week’s CNN/YouTube debate.
It’s worth noting simply because South Carolina and Georgia often find themselves on parallel tracks when it comes to Old South symbolism.
In South Carolina, a compromise in 2000 removed the battle flag from the state capitol dome, though the banner remains on the statehouse grounds and flies next to a Confederate memorial beside one of the busiest streets in the city.
In Georgia, the battle emblem lost its place on the state flag in 2001, and was a prime factor in the ouster of Gov. Roy Barnes in 2002. An attempt to have the Confederate battle emblem placed on a statewide flag referendum, initiated by Gov. Sonny Perdue, failed in 2003.
The question about the flag was posed last week, via a Texas resident, who had it displayed on his wall. Romney and Thompson were the only candidates asked to respond.
Said Romney:
“Right now, with the kinds of issues we got in this country, I’m not going to get involved with a flag like that. That’s not a flag that I recognize so that I would hold up in my room.
“The people of our country have decided not to fly that flag. I think that’s the right thing.
“My own view is that this country can go beyond that kind of stuff, and that instead we can do as a party what we need to do, which is to reach out to all Americans.
“Every time I listen to someone like John Edwards get on TV and say there are two Americans, I just want to — I just want to throw something at the TV, because there are not two Americas. There’s one America.
“We are a nation united. We face extraordinary challenges right now. And Democrats dividing us and tearing down this country are doing exactly the wrong thing.
“We’re succeeding in Iraq. We’ve got tough challenges. We can overcome them. But we do not need to have that kind of divisive talk. And that flag, frankly, is divisive, and it shouldn’t be shown.”
Then came Thompson:
“I know that everybody who hangs the flag up in their room like that is not racist. I also know that for a great many Americans it’s a symbol of racism.
“So, therefore, as a public place — he’s free to do whatever he wants to in his home. As far as a public place is concerned, I am glad that people have made the decision not to display it as a prominent flag, symbolic of something, at a state capitol.
“As a part of a group of flags or something of that nature, you know, honoring
various servicepeople at different times in different parts of the country, I think that’s different.
“But, as a nation, we don’t need to go out of our way to be bringing up things that to certain people in our country that’s bad for them.”
We’ve reported before that Confederate enthusiasts make up about 11 or 12 percent of the Republican primary vote in Georgia — that’s based on the 2006 primary challenge of Perdue by flagger-sponsored candidate Ray McBerry.
If the issue is stoked — and we’ve no evidence it will be — it could make a difference in a crowded GOP primary field. And this is just a seat-of-the-pants observation, but it would probably hurt Thompson more than Romney.
Chances are that Romney, as a former governor of Massachusetts and a Mormon, probably never had the Confederate vote anyway. The same can’t be said for Thompson, a former U.S. senator from Tennessee.
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Comments
By jpe
December 4, 2007 9:05 AM | Link to this
Ron Paul would simply say it’s a state issue. Vote Ron Paul & long live the CBF!!!
By Will Jones
December 4, 2007 9:43 AM | Link to this
An American of discernment and wisdom seeking the White House would recognize the primary element of the Confederate Battle Flag is the Cross of St. Andrew, the symbolic denotation of “Protestantism Overseas” - for which the Jeffersonian, Jew-loving, Protestant and Baptist South, White and Black, was willing to take up arms against the German, Irish, and Italian Roman Catholics led by Roman Catholic William T. Sherman, among others.
Rome, “the Wall Street of slavery” for 2,000 years, recognized by America’s Whig Founders as the Anti-Christ of Scripture and History, and “the popery of government, monarchy,” were the twin reasons we escaped effeminate Europe to found this Land of Promise; the New Secular Order.
Let us establish Righteousness in the Land. Understanding what Goodness existed in the South, and what hidden Evil was served by the North will give balance to the shared and just perspective of our special place in History for all Americans…and speed the justice the People must require of the corrupt false-elite faction which has so traitorously abused us.
Rome assassinated Lincoln six days after Appomattox, and Rome’s agents in the Knight of Malta-led CIA assassinated John Kennedy six weeks after he ordered us out of their fiefdom of Vietnam.
Rome’s elite is Bush’s and the GOP’s base. Romney, enriched and tapped as governor for Rome’s strongest state, Massachusetts, is of “Rome West,” a Mormon.
Like Romney, Thompson is also a compromised draft-dodger, so clearly serving the same Nixon/Bush interests who assassinated Kennedy and gave us Watergate.
Racism is un-American. Our Shibboleth, E Pluribus Unum, forbids it. The Confederate Battle Flag has within it the righteousness of America’s Founding and must be retained for knowledge and awareness of our righteous ancestors vanquished by those, and their dupes, who went on to finance Hitler and the Holocaust through the grandfather of the homosexual draft-dodger cheated into the White House by the Roman Catholics of the Supreme Court, Prescott Bush: a Vatican-banker Rockefeller frontman.
Until all Americans confront and embrace the Divine Providence upon which We, the People, were established Sovereign of Our Land, and bring to justice the ravening wolves and false “princes” who have stolen our treasure, debased our currency, defiled Our Constitution, opened our border to organized invasion by Rome, and treasonously attacked us on 9-11 to send us to false war for oil, heroin, and power, we will continue to see trotted out as “presidential candidates” the petty, peccant and perverse fakers on the scene today.
Barack Obama is the only exception. We must rally to him and protect him from the faction willing and able to murder John Kennedy on the streets of Dallas and Dr. King in Memphis. He must be protected from those satanic forces in our midst willing to commit 9-11: Bush, Cheney, and their Anti-Christ faction.
G-d is just. So must we be.
Death for Treason.
By Athens, GA
December 4, 2007 10:06 AM | Link to this
Does that McBerry number take into account the liberal voters who crossed over to vote against Ralph Reed?
By uncle jessie
December 4, 2007 10:16 AM | Link to this
Barnes fiasco learnt some folks a thang er two. Perdue figgered it out, he let em have another Confed flag to fly atop capitol and all over the state. Dixie is the key to D.C. Why rile the good ole boys?
By Churchill
December 4, 2007 10:43 AM | Link to this
Well, jpe, I guess libs would label Ru Paul a racist. Doesn’t matter he still has zero chances of being elected.
By Vincent
December 4, 2007 11:51 AM | Link to this
Which is why the folks at CNN targeted the question towards two of the more conservatives in the race, Fred being the most consistent one, mind you- all in an effort to drag them down in South Carolina and enhance the possibility of a RINO such as Huckabee or Rudy winning.
By Hand of the Pope
December 4, 2007 12:05 PM | Link to this
Will must be a Farrakkkhaner. Getting a bowtie in your stocking this Christmas, big guy?
By simon
December 4, 2007 12:42 PM | Link to this
the victory of the union in the American Civil War ensured that the United States of America remain united. Although one cannot ignore the Confederacies conditions and situation, ultimately we are today one nation, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Anybody who hangs up the flag of the confederacy and is proud of confederate heritage is subsequently going against the prinicples of the United States of America, and therefore is more of a traitor than a patriot of our United States…
By Anonymous
December 4, 2007 1:24 PM | Link to this
So the Catholic-obsessed Will Jones is also a fan of the Confederacy, eh?
You “southern heritage” types may want to look at the sort of company you keep.
By Southern Heritage Type
December 4, 2007 1:35 PM | Link to this
Anonymous wrote: “So the Catholic-obsessed Will Jones is also a fan of the Confederacy, eh?
You ‘southern heritage’ types may want to look at the sort of company you keep.”
You must not have even read the first paragraph of his post.
I guess you’re a semi-literate “northern heritage type” so I accept your apology in advance.
By Craig
December 4, 2007 2:16 PM | Link to this
Keep in mind that the Confederate Battle Flag represents the constitution enacted by the southern states. It is peculiar that those defending it against racism claims fail to note the Confederate constitution solidified slavery and protected it as a permanent constitutional right - something the US constitution never did. So to say the Confederacy was not racist or based on slavery is a falsehood.
By Monty Ousley Weddell
December 4, 2007 4:06 PM | Link to this
American has a rich and historic past and it is important that it be remembered. Indeed, Texas for example has had six flags flown over its lands. We should honor our history, but must remember that it is “history”. To continue to impose the historical significance of our past flags onto the present should be a matter of discussion and resolved by the interested parties - citizens of/and by the states. To bring this type of issue into the public forum in a Presidential election is a waste and deflects from the “real” and important issues that face our nation !!!
By George
December 4, 2007 4:37 PM | Link to this
How To Lose Southern Votes >> A Display of “Presentism” & A Bad Answer!
Dear Mitt Romney,
Being a Southerner, most often a Republican, and also a lifelong member of the LDS church, I had a little more faith in you before your ugly debate answer concerning the historic American Confederate flag. I had no idea that you were so bigoted. I’ve got a question, “how do you expect to win an election by attacking our Southern heritage and legacy”? As you are aware, our American culture and heritage are often under attack by one extremist or another, and we do not need it attacked by a Presidential candidate!.
Ex-Senator George Allen was sent a very important message by Southerners / Virginians in the last election. His ugly comments about our historical patriotic flags helped Virginians (our extended family) select Jim Webb, a real leader for Virginians.
We also agree with today’s Virginia Senator James Webb, who also served as Secretary of the Navy and Assistant Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan:
“to tar the sacrifices of the Confederate soldier as simple acts of racism, and reduce the battle flag under which he fought to nothing more than the symbol of a racist heritage, is one of the great blasphemies of our modern age.” — Jim Webb (Born Fighting” “How the Scots-Irish Shaped America, New York: Broadway Books, 2004, p. 225.)
Along with ours, I’d guess you lost many Southern votes by your opinion at the debate. In any case, thanks for reviewing my input into your campaign. Please stop attacking the historical American flag of my patriotic American ancestors.
“… political correctness has replaced witch trials and communist hearings as the preferred way to torment our fellow countrymen.” “Ghost Riders,” Sharyn McCrumb, 2004, Signet, pp. 9
“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.” — George Orwell
By Anti-Will
December 4, 2007 7:05 PM | Link to this
Wow, does Will Jones scare the hell out of anyone else? Just goes to show the uninformed and misled have a voice too. I grew up in the South, and I saw a little ignorance toward Catholics, but wow. Will please put down the “Da Vinci Code” and dont fear “Rome”. The book is just fiction, much like your conspiracy theories. Its nut balls like you that embarrass us Southerners and Christians. So please shut up.
By Billy Bearden
December 4, 2007 10:59 PM | Link to this
Ga Ex Roy Barnes,Mo Ex Bob Holden, NC Ex John Edwards, Al Ex Don Seigelman, Mo Ex Dick Gephardt,Ar Ex John McCain,Loud Mouth Al Sharpton, Father of Illegit kids Jesse Jackson, Mo Ex Jim Talent, Ms Ex Ronnie Musgrove, Hypocrite Ralph Reed - All have come out and bashed the Confederate Flag and never went ANY further in their political careers. Into this mix we now toss a Romney and Thompson.
PS - Obama also is a Confederate hater - he saw to it a full and proper Confederate Military Service wasn’t given to the 866 dead POWs interred at Camp Butler in Illinois.
By Jerry
December 5, 2007 8:49 AM | Link to this
Will is certainly entertaining - and inventive. I’ve never heard anyone say the Pope assassinated Lincoln and Kennedy, or that Vietnam was a Vatican fiefdom! The latter seemed pretty Buddhist when I was there. But maybe those bald guys in saffron robes were Papists in disguise. And the CIA being an arm of the Knights of Malta? Keep it up, Will, we need the humor.
By Will Jones
December 5, 2007 9:14 AM | Link to this
Google’d “Camp-Butler Obama Confederate” but didn’t get to any stories other than a flag/cemetery issue that the cemetery cleared worked around for a monument dedication. Could you point me to more information about the issue you cite? I suspect Obama is open to learning a better understanding of the history and principles involved in the matter…and he is still the only candidate who has alluded to the “Big Lie” the People must rectify. The Republic must be saved from the traitors of the existing fascist plutocracy (the same faction which killed the 866…and Kennedy and King and our Vietnam dead and the victims of 9/11 and our false war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and funded Hitler and the Holocaust) and so has my support regardless of an Illinois-based political decision that could very well be cleared up with education.
By debbie
December 5, 2007 11:25 AM | Link to this
Murdered women’s mothers blame Huckabee for his part in killer’s release http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics/story/389698.html
By Cajie
December 11, 2007 9:36 AM | Link to this
From a Mormon descendant
The Confederate flag is just another historical banner of our republic, like the “Don’t Tread on Me” banner, and is part and parcel of our history. To demonize it—as Romney has done—in typical Yankee fashion—defines him as a man who is NOT representative of all the American people. He is a politically correct candidate, who will perpetuate the self-hate and loathing of white guilt, for our slave-owning founding fathers, and American heroes of the Alamo.
Those presidential candidates who castigate the Confederate flag, fail to realize the direct kinship by marriage, between Robert E. Lee and Mary Ann Randolph Custis with President George Washington. The American credentials of the Southern patriots, were in direct alignment and pedigree with our founding fathers, as they exemplified what it is to be a real American; a rebel heritage.
Romney’s “Defining Moment”—Fodder For Mad Magazine Thor H. Asgardson December 10, 2007
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=45281
“But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”
-Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782
By Anonymous
December 11, 2007 10:09 AM | Link to this
Castigating the Confederate flag is like announcing you’re “tough on crime”—it’s a safe, but empty, gesture because only backward morons would disagree.