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Hey, Gettysburg: Even Mississippi Is Dumping the Confederate Flag

Published 2020-06-29 by Cory Allen Heidelberger

The Mississippi Legislature has decided that the racist traitor emblem of the Confederacy does not belong on its state flag:

Mississippi lawmakers voted to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag this weekend after fierce debate that Gov. Tate Reeves called “as divisive as the flag itself.”

…[Governor Tate] Reeves has already indicated that he will sign the bill to change the flag, and that he will do so within the coming days.

When signed into law, it would immediately take down the flag and set up a nine-member commission to design a new one. This means the flag will be coming down across the state within the coming days [Diane Pantaleo, “What We Know, and What’s Next, for the Bill to Change the State Flag,” Jackson Clarion Ledger, 2020.06.29].

Securing the two-thirds majorities necessary to rectify the Mississippi flag evidently required some annoying theocracy-pandering: the commission empaneled to design a new flag must include “In God We Trust” on the banner (hey, didn’t Tiffany Langer and her vexillogical friends just tell us not to put words on flags?). Some Mississippi Republicans needed a partisan palliative to swallow this anti-racism pill:

Sen. Chad McMahan, R-Guntown, said he talked with many of his constituents, and he believes they want a new flag. McMahan said he grew up in the 1980s with a somewhat innocuous understanding of the Confederate flag.

“When I look at that Confederate flag, I must confess that I think of ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’ and my first love, Daisy Duke,” McMahan said from the Senate floor. He later learned more about the Confederate flag, which he referred to as the “Democrat battle flag.” Recently, McMahan said he discussed the state flag with [Lt. Gov. Delbert] Hosemann over an afternoon snack of Oreos.

“I’m a Republican,” McMahan said. “Personally, I’m not going to support a Democrat battle flag” [Luke Ramseth and Giacomo Bologna, “Mississippi Lawmakers Vote to Change State Flag: No Confederate Emblem,” Jackson Clarion Ledger, 2020.06.28].

Note Sen. McMahan’s Limbaughian use of “Democrat” instead of “Democratic” as adjective, signaling the attempt to turn even this acknowledgement of justice and true patriotism into a political branding opportunity.

But 155 years after Lee surrendered to Grant, the Stars and Bars shall fly no more over the old, defeated, racist Confederacy. If the great-great-great-grandchildren of the racist rebels can finally wipe that stain from Mississippi’s flagpoles, then surely the white wannabes in local government in Gettysburg, South Dakota, can remove that racist, traitorous symbol from their police uniforms.

Published in South Dakota

16 Comments

  1. Eve Fisher

    I talked to a friend of mine in Georgia who’s amazed – and glad – that Mississippi is doing this. And yes, if Mississippi – Red State to the core – can do this, so can Gettysburg, SD.

    2020-06-29
  2. jerry

    Gettysburg police must get some kind of federal and state assistance for their department, cut it off entirely until they change. If they don’t change, then we taxpayers keep the change and give it to the tribes.

    2020-06-29
  3. Cory Allen Heidelberger

    Jerry, I’d support denying government funds to any political subdivision flying a traitor flag and promoting treason.

    However, to get our state and federal governments to adopt that approach, we’re going to need new management. Electing Joe Biden could get that done… and we won’t have to wait for Governor Sutton or Governor Heinert to follow up.

    2020-06-29
  4. Cory Allen Heidelberger

    Seth Tupper reports that if Gettysburg residents really valued their heritage, they’d ditch the racist traitor patch in honor of their forebears:

    …USD provost Kurt Hackemer says the display of the flag on the patch and elsewhere largely has nothing to do with direct heritage. He says it’s likely that there were no Confederate soldiers that settled in Gettysburg.

    “The founders of Gettysburg, I’m convinced, would be absolutely appalled that their police force is wearing the Confederate flag,” Hackamer says. “because in their minds, when you look at what people like those men were saying during the time of the town’s founding, that flag was the flag of traitors” [Seth Tupper, “Gettysburg PD Patch Features Confederate Flag Despite No Strong History in Area,” SDPB, 2020.06.29].

    Indeed, the folks who fly the Confederate flag aren’t very strong on history.

    2020-06-29
  6. Monty

    Mississippi is changing their flag for the same reason SD ditched the bathroom bill – NCAA Tournament host site policy.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/06/23/ncaa-is-limiting-its-confederate-flag-policy-mississippi-despite-examples-elsewhere/

    “The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) announced on Friday that NCAA championship events will not be held in states where the Confederate flag has a “prominent presence.” The statement targeted Mississippi, writing that it’s “the only state currently affected by the Association’s policy.”

    2020-06-29
  7. leslie

    Jon Loucks is mumbling – oh, no, not in my back yard

    2020-06-29
  8. grudznick

    Mr. Evans wrote:

    some stuff

    for which I generally mock him. Not this time. grudznick found Mr. Evans’ take somewhat entertaining. He does give us take. Thank you, sir.

    2020-06-29
  9. Debbo

    Monty, that’s right. The NCAA has a lot of power through their tournaments. Several years ago they used the same pressure on North Carolina to drop their discriminatory bathroom bill. Those NCAA tournaments bring in buckets o’ bucks.

    The SDHSAA could deny the Battlers participation in state competitions and the events leading up to them. I’ll bet that would get the adults’ attention.

    2020-06-30
  10. Cory Allen Heidelberger

    The flag and the patch both show bars with stars on them. I’ll not let semantics swamp an argument about racism and treason.

    2020-06-30
  12. Debbo

    Sounds like a lovely little burg – as long as you hate the right people.

    2020-06-30
  13. Kurt Evans

    I’d written:

    “Stars and Bars” referred to the first official national flag of the Confederacy, not to the emblem on the Confederate battle flag.

    Learn more here:
    https://media.victoriaadvocate.com/img/photos/2015/06/08/WEB_ConfederateSymbols.jpg

    Cory replies:

    The flag and the patch both show bars with stars on them. I’ll not let semantics swamp an argument about racism and treason.

    We’re not having an argument about racism and treason. We’re having an argument about whether the flag known as the “Stars and Bars” showed “bars with stars on them.”

    It didn’t:
    https://media.victoriaadvocate.com/img/photos/2015/06/08/WEB_ConfederateSymbols.jpg

    2020-07-01
  14. leslie

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_the_Confederate_States_of_America#/media/File%3ASponsor_souvenir_album_-_history_and_reunion_(1895)_(1895)_(14576050240).jpg

    Photo shows popularly (but incorrectly) known Confederate stars, bars and battle flags. Gun nuts love to say neither can gun regulators call AR-15s assault rifles, full auto machine guns ect. Battle flag, sport rifle, secession not slavery, eh Lurt? Republican messaging skill goes way back-to when they were known as southern Democrats.

    2020-07-01

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