The Confederate flag is a symbol of hate (LTTE)

[struggle4progress]

Once again we hear how the Confederate flag is not a symbol of hatred in this country but a symbol of the brave confederate soldiers fighting for what they believed in during the civil war ... The Ku Klux Klan has used the Confederate flag for over 100 years as their symbol ... The Confederate flag is a symbol for much more than just one deranged individual. It is a symbol of every deranged hate group in this country. The Confederate states lost the war to preserve slavery 150 years ago. It’s time for some people to get over it and move forward with the rest of America.

http://www.news-leader.com/story/opinion/2015/07/26/letter-confederate-flag-symbol-hate/30693097/

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

1. Yeah, right. A symbol of men killing for what they believed in. And what was that again?

What they believed in? Oh right, that they ought to be able to amass great fortunes on the labor of others. That they had a right to outright own other human beings and treat them any damn way they pleased and get some sort of credit when they chose to show any sort of human kindness. That a country that tries to outlaw that institution of slavery is the enemy.

Even after the war, they continued to fight for the right to subjugate blacks via States Rights, which they cited as justification for opposing Federal anti-lynching laws!

In 1948, Strom Thurmond, then the governor of South Carolina and later a senator from the state, led a breakaway camp from the Democratic Party to form the "States' Rights Democratic Party" — known as the "Dixiecrats."

Their platform included the following:

"We stand for the segregation of the races and the racial integrity of each race; the constitutional right to choose one's associates; to accept private employment without governmental interference, and to earn one's living in any lawful way. We oppose the elimination of segregation, the repeal of miscegenation statutes, the control of private employment by Federal bureaucrats called for by the misnamed civil rights program. We favor home-rule, local self-government and a minimum interference with individual rights."

http://www.vox.com/2015/6/23/8828215/Confederate-flag-states-rights

Even the NAACP initially thought it futile to fight for the Federal anti-lynching laws due to the States Rights defense:

The passage of anti-lynching legislation became one of the NAACP’s central goals. Slow to join the cause of pursuing legislation to remedy lynching because of the leadership’s concerns about the constitutionality of such an undertaking, the NAACP eventually embraced the movement, using it to educate the often ambivalent American public so as to jar it into substantive action.

http://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/BAIC/Historical-Essays/Temporary-Farewell/Anti-Lynching-Legislation/

Good grief, no wonder we can't get anti-gun laws. It took decades for the majority of Americans to support Federal anti-lynching legislation!!!