Electoral Math
Reality-Based^TM Political Numbers from Nicholas Beaudrot

| Home | John Kerry Fundraising Tour, or, Does He Get It?

The end of Old Glory

In addition to voting in the Democratic primary, today Georgia voters voted to retain the 2003 state flag. This replaced the 2001 state flag, which featured miniature copies of older flags, including one that had the Confederate battle flag, which replaced the 1956 flag, which consisted only of the state seal and the Confederate battle emblem.

Georgians should be honest here, and recognize that the 1956 flag was instated as a protest of Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, et al., reasserting "states' rights" in the face of a Supreme Court decision requiring the integration of public schools under the equal protection amendment to the constitution. Several other states either put the Confederate emblem on their state flag or began flying the Confederate flag at the state capitol. No amount of ranting and raving on the "heritage" of the former Confederacy will cover up this fact.

Of course, in 2004 the Confederate battle flag -- one that might fly to tell your troops where to rally to -- has now been replaced by the Confederate civil flag -- one that might fly over the capitol of the Confederacy in Birmingham or Atlanta or Richmond or wherever it was at the time. So while this is clearly progress and eleminates the more symbolicly racist battle flag, the "heritage" of the old Confederacy is alive and well.

I love my home state. Really. I do.

| | technorati

Home | Mail  | RSS

Last updated by Nicholas Beaudrot on 05:28 16 February 2005