Gov. Matt Blunt’s approval of a rural state legislator’s request to allow the Confederate flag to be flown at a special Memorial Day service for Confederate soldiers who fought as terrorists in the Civil War is the epitome of arrogance and insensitivity.
What a way to recognize a national holiday – by raising the Confederate flag to commemorate soldiers who fought to destroy this country! And it’s not enough to say that the people in question are merely “celebrating their heritage.” This ignores completely the fact that the Civil War was fought, in part, to protect the way of life of slave owners, who wanted to preserve their right to own slaves.
Perhaps Blunt’s contempt – and, possibly, ignorance – is the product of his personal upbringing, given that he grew up in rural Missouri, where slavery was once a fact of life. Many of our rural citizens no doubt wish Missouri still were a slave state.
The EYE received two condemnations of Blunt’s action. The St. Louis Black Leadership Roundtable wrote, “To anyone who knows U. S. history, the Confederate battle flag is not just a symbol of slavery and the oppression of African Americans. It represents hate. More than 500 extremist groups use the Southern Cross as one of their symbols.”
Raymond Moore got a little hot in a letter. “In this, the last slave state to be admitted to the Union – did you expect anything else?” he wrote. “This country is moving in the direction of some horrible future that can’t be good for ANY humans. IF and when all of these poor idiots, so filled with hate, finally realize the freedoms and liberties that they are so happy to forfeit, I hope it’s not to late for the REAL patriots to salvage the Union.”
As for Blunt, his behavior to date has been predictable. The vast majority of his support against Missouri State Auditor Claire McCaskill came from rural Missouri, where flying the Confederate flag on your pick-up is almost expected.
What we have yet to hear is a strong condemnation of Blunt’s actions from white Missouri Democrats. Where are those labor leaders who in last week’s Post intimated that Blunt was a fighter for families? Whose families did Blunt pander to in allowing the Confederate flag to fly on state-owned property? It clearly could not have been black families, who see the Confederate symbol as a reminder of a time when their ancestors were legally deemed to “have no rights that a white man has to respect.”
The flying of the Confederate flag in Missouri and other states highlights the blurring of the ideological line between white Democrats and white Republicans. Republicans do not have a reason to make any overtures to sway black voters. Their base is rural and suburban white Missourians, who have little empathy for the plight of urban voters. Blunt said it best when he said that Democrats vote in places where no one wants to live. And, with friends like labor leader Hugh Mcvey, who is willing to lay down for Blunt in the 2008 elections, black Democratic voters in Missouri are expected to hunker down like a jackrabbit in a hail storm. McVey needs to listen to national Democratic leader Howard Dean, who lashes the GOP for their narrow scope in catering mainly to white Christians.
