But his foot was in his mouth.
I don't think his statement meant that he wanted the votes of racists. I think he just meant that as a candidate, he wanted to represent people from all backgrounds, classes and interests.
I was raised in Chicago, but born in Texas. I have family in Arkansas and Mississippi and I can say that the flag is a slap in the face to most of my relatives. I don't know any black person that sees the Confederate flag as a source of proud heritage. The people who see the flag as a source of pride and heritage are mostly white. I was discussing this issue with a gay worker of mine (who likes Dean, btw). He told me he was disappointed in Dean's words and gave me an analogy:
He said he once had a roommate in college that was a big fan of the rapper Eminem. Eminem has many songs with lyrics that are derogatory to gay people. He said he tried not to make a big issue of the roommate (who was an otherwise affable guy) playing the songs, but after hearing one particularly vulgar and violent song
("My words are like a dagger with a jagged edge/That'll stab you in the head/whether you're a fag or lez/Or the homosex, hermaph or a trans-a-vest/Pants or dress - hate fags? The answer's "yes" Homophobic? Nah, you're just heterophobic..."), he told the roommate that he didn't want to hear that $hit ever again, or he would request to be moved. His roommate apologized and said he didn't mean to offend him. The next day, all of his Eminem posters had been taken down.
My co-worker told me that the roommate relayed to him that he had taken the posters down not because he no longer liked Eminem, but because he realized that what the posters represented was a source of pain for Dan (my co-worker).
That's sort of how I feel. I hate that flag with a passion!
We need the votes of those Confederate flag waving Southerners, no doubt. But at the same time, I feel that it is wrong to sanction that behavior and I believe, in some respect, Dean's comments seemed to say that it was OK to wave that flag with pride. Ask the descendants of sharecroppers and slaves if they want to wave that flag with pride. My great-grandmother worked on a plantation picking cotton as a young girl from sun up until sun down and later sharecropped before earning enough to purchase her own land. When I drive down south every summer and I see that flag, I have a knee-jerk reaction of wanting to scream with rage and cry out of sorrow for the Southern economy that was built on the backs of black slave labor. That flag is an old Civil War relic which was flown with pride by supporters of
SLAVERY.For twenty-five years this agitation has been steadily increasing, until it has now secured to its aid the power of the common Government. Observing the forms of the Constitution, a sectional party has found within that Article establishing the Executive Department, the means of subverting the Constitution itself. A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all the States north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of President of the United States, whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery. He is to be entrusted with the administration of the common Government, because he has declared that that "Government cannot endure permanently half slave, half free," and that the public mind must rest in the belief that slavery is in the course of ultimate extinction. - From the Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union
Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become necessities of the world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization. That blow has been long aimed at the institution, and was at the point of reaching its consummation. There was no choice left us but submission to the mandates of abolition, or a dissolution of the Union, whose principles had been subverted to work out our ruin. - From A Declaration of the Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of the State of Mississippi from the Federal Union.
The Presidential election of 1852 resulted in the total overthrow of the advocates of restriction and their party friends. Immediately after this result the anti-slavery portion of the defeated party resolved to unite all the elements in the North opposed to slavery an to stake their future political fortunes upon their hostility to slavery everywhere. This is the party two whom the people of the North have committed the Government. They raised their standard in 1856 and were barely defeated. They entered the Presidential contest again in 1860 and succeeded.
The prohibition of slavery in the Territories, hostility to it everywhere, the equality of the black and white races, disregard of all constitutional guarantees in its favor, were boldly proclaimed by its leaders and applauded by its followers.
With these principles on their banners and these utterances on their lips the majority of the people of the North demand that we shall receive them as our rulers. - From Georgia's Declaration of Secession
Texas abandoned her separate national existence and consented to become one of the Confederated Union to promote her welfare, insure domestic tranquility and secure more substantially the blessings of peace and liberty to her people. She was received into the confederacy with her own constitution, under the guarantee of the federal constitution and the compact of annexation, that she should enjoy these blessings. She was received as a commonwealth holding, maintaining and protecting the institution known as negro slavery-- the servitude of the African to the white race within her limits-- a relation that had existed from the first settlement of her wilderness by the white race, and which her people intended should exist in all future time. Her institutions and geographical position established the strongest ties between her and other slave-holding States of the confederacy. Those ties have been strengthened by association. But what has been the course of the government of the United States, and of the people and authorities of the non-slave-holding States, since our connection with them? - From A Declaration of the Causes which Impel the State of Texas to Secede from the Federal Union
Read those words. That's what that flag represents to me. And it does bother me that someone wants the votes of people who fly that representation everyday outside their homes and in their courthouses. That being said, I don't think Dean really understood the dynamics of the emotions surrounding the flag issue and, not being from that geographical region, didn't have the charisma or wherewithal to address the situation by placating both flag-wavers and flag-haters like Clinton did.
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