Friday, November 7, 2003

Mississippi Politics and the Confederate Flag

Fdtate313 of Progressive Musings recommended the latest column by Paul Krugman in his comments to my last post. Krugman has some good observations, as usual, including:

<< [C]onsider the 2003 tax cut. It was also heavily tilted toward the affluent, and therefore toward rich states. According to Citizens for Tax Justice estimates, the typical New Jersey family got a $409 tax cut. In Mississippi, the number was only $165. >>

I still reacted more negatively to Howard Dean's Confederate flag gaffe than Krugman did. The main reason is what I've mentioned before. The Confederate flag issue is being used more and more as a "bait-and-switch" issue by far-right racist groups. Both the Democratic and Republican parties should be opposing that head-on, not trying to co-opt the Confederate flag.

But if the Republicans in the South want to be the party of the Confederate flag, why should the Democrats in any Congressional district in the country hesitate to be the party of the American flag? Dean has at least caused a problem for that approach.

Two Mississippians have died in the Iraq War in the last week. Joe Nathan Wilson of Crystal Springs was one of the 16 soldiers killed in the helicopter attack last weekend. (See also here.) James Anderson Chance III of Kokomo was killed Thursday by a land mine.

Wilson and Chance died for America, not for the long-dead Confederacy. Wilson was African-American. If the Confederacy had survived, he would have been a slave, not a soldier dying an heroic death for his country.

How many "guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks" would you guess volunteer for military service?  Hint: not many. They would prefer to stay at home and listen to Rush Limbaugh's drugged-out ravings on the radio.

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