Talk about your pandering — Rudy Giuliani visited Montgomery the other day and said the people of Alabama should decide whether to fly the Confederate battle flag over the State Capitol:
“One of the great beauties of the kind of government we have, which is a national/federal government, is that we can make — on a broad range of issues — we can make different decisions in different parts of the country,” Mr. Giuliani said. “We have different sensitivities, and at different times we are going to come to different decisions, and I think that is best left up to the states.”
The NY Times says this question poses a litmus test for GOP candidates in the South. I think that’s overstating it; outside of a sizable minority of nuts, most Southerners prefer not to wallow in the past. Let me repeat: the flag is a symbol of white supremacy. And despite my Confederate roots, I’m glad the Union won.
Here’s what a real leader would say: “Yes, it should be a decision left to the states, but I wish those states would choose not to fly it. This country is already divided enough; do we really want to be honoring a symbol of secession? And consider what message you’d be sending to your state’s sizable African-American population. The South should not be celebrating its past, but its present. You’ve come a long way — why not recognize your progress instead of romanticizing a lost cause, one that sought to enslave an entire race of people while dividing these United States.”
The flag hasn’t even flown over the Capitol in Montgomery in years.
Yeah, that’s great.I guess RG would also suggest to start slavery again, just to get the voices of the southern republicans or what???