How Republicans pulled a fast one with the Confederate flag. (Guns guns and more guns)
It's the capture-the-flag you never saw coming.
In a shrewdly mapped play, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley's (R) call to remove the flapping Confederate rebel jack from state capitol grounds suddenly prompted an entire party to reverse course on the issue. And after years of happily whistling political Dixie as part of its mad racial plan for Southern domination, the Republican Party backed away from this in an unprecedentedly humble about face. If presidential hopeful and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was calling it a non-issue on Sunday, there's now a good chance he might find a convenient backtrack moment by week's end.
The zeitgeist could hardly contain its excitement. Social media blew up into a hashtagging mess of victory laps. The ground-bolted flag, mind you, is still flapping, with no formal agreement or timeline (yet) of its final demise. Still, as historically hardheaded as South Carolina is (defiant and anti-federalist since national birth), the assumption is that the simple act of public contrition from state Republican leaders is in and of itself a remarkable feat.
But don't let hastily announced pressers and momentary Kumbaya in the wake of last week's horrific Charleston, S.C. terrorist attack fool you. Guided by Haley's gifted political hand, Republicans just pulled one of the most clever optical okey-dokeys in recent memory, capturing the flag, running across the field and waving it — in our collective face. Here are five reasons why it's not all what it seems:
Keep talking about flags, so long as you're not talking about guns. Philosophy professor and gun policy expert Firmin Debrabander threw a heavy dose of skepticism on the flag talk as we discussed it during a recent radio conversation on Baltimore-based WYPR-FM: The more we keep focus on the rebel flag, the less we're talking about gun control, just as the National Rifle Association (NRA) wants. Hence, Haley may have just engineered a spectacular solid for one of her more ardent political supporters. More talk about the rebel jack, conveniently stretching its shelf life on the news cycle, keeps the spotlight off gun control. And that's what Haley, state Republican leaders and the gun lobby want: In February, Haley signed a bill into law authorizing concealed guns in restaurants and bars and had the state Senate passed it, she was ready to sign a "permitless" concealed carry law.
Everything stays the same, especially for black South Carolinians. It's not like taking the flag down dramatically changes anything for blacks in the Palmetto State. And folks can still wave it on private property if they want. The Republican governor and the GOP-dominated state legislature are still politically unfriendly to a community that's nearly 30 percent of the population. The state still boasts a voter ID law. While the Economic Policy Institute shows South Carolina has the second-lowest black unemployment rate in the nation, it's still rather high at 8.7 percent, compared to only 5.3 percent for whites. The state's poverty rate is ninth in the nation, and the black poverty rate is outrageous at 28 percent. Taking the flag down doesn't move the political or economic needle for blacks in South Carolina one bit.
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/civil-rights/245910-how-republicans-pulled-a-fast-one-with-the-confederate-flag
Of course it's really about their gun nut racist base. What else?
= new reply since forum marked as read
want the flag issue to go away before it becomes an election issue they can't win on.
