We are curious about the political left, given their deep sensitivities about the slavery implications they contend are inextricable in the display of the Confederate flag. How many will attend the various Democrat Party sponsored Jefferson-Jackson Day events? Those dinners in the fall are trademark Democrat fundraising and showcase events in Iowa.
Both Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson held slaves and neither freed them at their death, they were transmitted to their estates as property. To be sure Jefferson did oppose slavery but he was racist with many statements and policies to that effect. Jackson of course was notorious in his racism.
In Jefferson’s case, a complicated figure was he, but he certainly had instincts for freedom and wanted to abolish slavery but on terms politically arrived at. We know, tell that to the person held in bondage! Nevertheless Jefferson with all his “complications” was an important person in American history. We would never support tearing down the Jefferson Memorial or Monticello.
The Confederate battle flag was fought under by southerners for complicated reasons, most of whom never held slaves and many of whom thought it a “moral and political evil.” They were fighting for states rights, and the Constitution as they understood it.
It is no more an insult to freedom for the state to display the historic flag as part of a nod to the best instincts it represents than for the country to honor Jefferson and Jackson, for their best instincts. Who the NAACP chooses to honor or a political party with supposed standards is a different matter.
Democrat leadership in particular and other holier-than-thou historically ignorant types have jumped on the bad wagon of denigrating the Confederate flag while honoring Jefferson and Jackson. Who do they think Jefferson and Jackson would have fought for in the war between the states?
The hypocrisy of Democrats strongly reveals itself every fall.
Excellent commentary! Unfortunately, far too sane to appeal to corporate CEO’s who are so easily intimidated by a “twitter barrage”, a radical activist board member, and/or the lockstep assaults by the mainstream media…as well as a federal government becoming increasingly more punitive toward Obama critics of any kind.
To wit: One of America’s truly iconic companies, based in the “heartland”, demonstrated how it works. Just a couple of years ago, in the immediate aftermath of the Democrat staged “Sandra Fluke farce”, and the subsequent attack on Rush Limbaugh for his whimsical critique of that virtuous Georgetown lass , an eager company spokesperson, kind of a private sector “Marie Harf”, rushed to media outlets to assure an “anxious” public that the firm was not a sponsor of the Limbaugh show and if it had been it would quit being so. There! Shareholders and the general public breathed a sigh of relief. A courageous declaration by a “red, white, and blue” company had saved the market-based economy and its own well-earned reputation!
And “Boss Hawg” did not even have to threaten them.