What if they were to just replace the flag in S.C. with this?
I mean, unlike the battle flag in question, this ACTUALLY is an official Confederate Flag. The battle flag has become the de facto redneck durkerdoo flag as well as the de facto KKK flag. That is the flag that has cultural connotations and purportedly hurts feelings because it is recognizable. But almost all of the arguments to ban it because "erhmagad treason!" should actually be focused on those flags which represented the government. In contrast to the recognizable battle flag, I strongly doubt that most people would be offended by this merely by seeing it. It looks an awful lot like the Texas flag after all.
Or if its bad because blah blah racist ... how about if only some States are allowed to fly it at civil war memorials? During the initial secession crisis Virginia voted not to secede. The Virginia government said, don't march troops through our State or we WILL secede. Lincoln disagreed with that proposition. Virginia then voted a second time and this time voted to secede. Doesn't sound so black and white (terrible pun I know) to me. I mean seriously, condensing a war down to "blah blah white supremacy" is pretty intellectually dishonest considering most white NORTHERNERS were also white supremacists. It's like saying WWI was solely about some Serb killing some Austrian.
Cue name-calling and race-baiting in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...
Lincoln disagreed because Virginia was a part of the United States, so of course federal troops had the right to march through the state to quell an internal insurrection. State governments have no right to interfere with that. If a country cannot move its own troops around its own territory, then why have a military at all?
No one is claiming mid-19th century Northerners had "modern" views on black people. But believing black people are inferior to white people, while a reprehensible view, is still not as egregious as believing they can be bought and sold and worked like cattle, as mid-19th century Southerners did.
