SC: Gov. Haley to sign bill removing Confederate flag

[All Along The Watchtower]

Article.

What a RINO.

[Consciously Unconscious]

I just watched her sign it (via live stream).  I'm proud of my state right now. 

[Rockefeller GOP]

Hardly a "RINO" thing to do to remove the Confederate flag.  This has a ton of Republican support, and the compromises to keep it across the South were made by Democrats, including Clinton.

Great move by Gov. Haley, and if you haven't seen the tearful speech by that Republican from the Charleston area, you should check it out; it's very moving.

[Clark Kent]

Good. The Confederacy is evil, and all public support of it should be removed. Glad to see that Haley has done this. She's a member of the Party of Lincoln, so I'm not surprised.

[The Dowager Mod]

Ya a real hero, doing the right thing only after being forced to by overwhelming public disgust.

[Rockefeller GOP]

Ya a real hero, doing the right thing only after being forced to by overwhelming public disgust.

Do you apply that same standard to every historical political figure?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Was in Columbia today on other business and happened to drive by the State House. Some minor protests pro and con, but what stuck out in my mind was a pickup truck parked there festooned with anti-abortion and anti-gay slogans on the sides of the truck bed, a photo of an aborted fetus on the driver side door, flag poles in the bed with a Christian flag and an upside-down US flag on them to which a pair of Confederate car flags had been affixed to both door windows. With friends like that maybe SC will soon be pro-choice and pro-SSM. Nah...

[PJ]

Ya a real hero, doing the right thing only after being forced to by overwhelming public disgust.

Do you apply that same standard to every historical political figure?

Removing the confederate flag was the correct decision. That being said, it doesn't make Haley or any of the other Southern Republicans who are just now calling for the removal of the flag post-Charleston heroic fighters against racism. They were either defending the confederate flag or largely silent on the issue before Charleston, and due to the events that conspired, condemning the Confederate Flag now is about as common sense as condemning terrorism post-9/11. Calling Nikki Haley a member of the 'Party of Lincoln' isn't really justified, especially when the flag debate is symbolic and has no tangible benefits towards ending institutional racism, which Republican officeholders like Haley aren't that concerned with.

[Likely Voter]

Before the killings at the church the SC GOP was fine with the flag. Immediately after the obviously racist killings they were fine with the flag (with the exception of one GOP senator and friend of one of the victims). It wasn't until the pictures of Root with the flag that things switched and it still took days, and obviously by the vote in the SC House it still wasn't easy. Some GOPers almost succeeded in killing it or at least delaying it, but with the world watching it became too much of an embarrassment.

But on the same day, southern GOPers in the US House were trying to make sure confederate flags can fly on Federal property. So clearly many in the party haven't let go of this hateful symbol. And this is the same party that is home to the new rock star who has shot to the top of the polls by saying Mexican immigrants are criminals and rapists.

[longtimelurker]

Ya a real hero, doing the right thing only after being forced to by overwhelming public disgust.

Do you apply that same standard to every historical political figure?

When she ran for governor, she was asked if she had any plans to remove the flag.  She said no, because no CEO's had asked her to.  This wasn't "History" from a "historical figure", this was last October: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/nikki-haley-confederate-flag-ceos

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Ridiculous that this wasn't done last century.

[Famous Mortimer]

It was first done in 1865.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

It was first done in 1865.

The klan hadn't designed this flag yet.

[TDAS04]

Finally. 

[Stand With Israel. Crush Hamas]

Good. Racial implications aside, it's insane that a flag representing a treasonous rebellion should still be allowed to fly as the state flag of a defeated party.

[Simfan34]

Good. Racial implications aside, it's insane that a flag representing a treasonous rebellion should still be allowed to fly as the state flag of a defeated party.

+1000

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

In an astoundingly effective inadvertent metaphor, state Rep Mike Pitts took his hearing aids out during the speech to slow the legislation down.

[CountryClassSF]

Vote smarter next time, South Carolina.

A great victory for political correctness, which is all that matters these days.

[badgate]

  I'm proud of my state right now. 

Not exactly the highest bar, but sure.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Female gov, did a courageous move, something that Don Siegalman and Hoges refused to do. Haley joins Roy Barnes and Zell Miller.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Female gov, did a courageous move, something that Don Siegalman and Hoges refused to do. Haley joins Roy Barnes and Zell Miller.

Hodges couldn't have done squat.  If it weren't for Beasley having led the way on forging a compromise that brought the flag down from the dome to the less objectionable spot of the existing Confederate memorial on the State House grounds, he'd probably have been elected to a second term and Hodges never would have been governor.  As ir is, I expect a few of our Republican legislators will be primaried and/or lose in the general because of what happened, tho I don't expect their opponents will raise the issue themselves because they won't need to.

[Skill and Chance]

Good. Racial implications aside, it's insane that a flag representing a treasonous rebellion should still be allowed to fly as the state flag of a defeated party.

I'm torn on the treason point.  I think it should be taken down because it symbolizes racism and slavery, period. 

Consider an alternate world in which Breckenridge was elected in 1860.  In response, New England secedes but the revolt is eventually put down by the federal government.  In the 1950's, the Supreme Court overturns Dred Scott v. Sandford and abolition is finally enforced on the South over the next 15 years.  In early 2007, newly elected Deval Patrick, now the first black statewide elected official in US history, asks the Massachusetts legislature to raise the flag of the New England Revolt at the statehouse.   

Should alternate Governor Patrick be condemned for this "treasonous" act?  Clearly it's about why the rebellion happened, not the act of rebellion itself.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Consider an alternate world in which Breckenridge was elected in 1860.  In response, New England secedes but the revolt is eventually put down by the federal government.

Even if every single non-Lincoln vote went to Breckenridge in 1860, which is completely implausible in OTL, Lincoln still wins the electoral vote 169-134.   Any timeline in which Breckenridge has a plausible shot at the Presidency requires anti-slavery sentiment in the North to be far weaker than it was and yet paradoxically with Republicanism weaker in the North, the Democratic split is unlikely and Douglas would thus get the nomination. 

[CH86]

Hopefully the sight of even GOP leaders and lawmakers rejecting the confederates, will force the neoconfederates to seek forming their own party. The GOP without the racists and the neoconfederates would be a viable conservative party again. Thus politics would return to being liberal vs. conservative, rather than Sane vs. crazy.

[RINO Tom]

Hopefully the sight of even GOP leaders and lawmakers rejecting the confederates, will force the neoconfederates to seek forming their own party. The GOP without the racists and the neoconfederates would be a viable conservative party again. Thus politics would return to being liberal vs. conservative, rather than Sane vs. crazy.

I certainly want no neo-Confederates or racists in my party, but let's not pretend like Southern Democrats were leading this huge charge to get it down all this time.  The fact is it's down, Republicans were largely responsible and I think that's a very good thing.  Should they have done it sooner?  Absolutely.  But that's in the past now, and I'd rather have it late than never.