Race And Cowardice

Here's sportswriter (!) Sally Jenkins this morning in the once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle:

If you went to Germany and saw a war memorial with a Nazi flag flying over it, what would you think of those people? You might think they were unrepentant. You might think they were in a lingering state of denial about their national atrocities. The Confederate battle flag is an American swastika, the relic of traitors and totalitarians, symbol of a brutal regime, not a republic. The Confederacy was treason in defense of a still deeper crime against humanity: slavery. If weaklings find racial hatred to be a romantic expression of American strength and purity, make no mistake that it begins by unwinding a red thread from that flag.

Yet the governor of South Carolina found it easier to call for the execution of this milkweed boy than it was for her to finally call for the lowering of that banner. Why?

Jenkins, who happens to have co-authored a book on Unionists in Mississippi during the Civil War, writes a particularly powerful essay on how this "American swastika" was allowed back into public life, most notably during the civil rights struggles of the last half of the 20th century, and the truth about what it really stands for.  Why she's not a regular contributor to the editorial page (instead of a Bush administration re-tread) is symptomatic of the decay of this once-great newspaper.

Another recommended read this morning is on the subject of how the Republican/ New Confederate/ Stupid Party, and specifically it's presidential hopefuls, reacted to the Charleston killing and displaying the flag of slavery and treason:

The massacre last week at a church in Charleston, S.C., opened a leadership opportunity for the nearly two dozen politicians running to be the next president.

But few stepped forward to seize it.

The Republican hopefuls mostly stammered and stumbled in response to the shootings. At first, some resisted calling the massacre racially motivated, only to reverse course when it became obvious it was.

Most stopped short of calling for South Carolina leaders to remove the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the state capitol in Columbia. Some, like Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, declined to comment at all. Only after South Carolina’s Republican governor, Nikki Haley, emotionally declared Monday that the flag should come down did most GOP candidates join the chorus.

We eagerly await the insights of Ron "Leadership!" Fournier (but we won't be holding our breath).