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By the time this appears in print, we should know who won the Republican primary in South Carolina. Like other members of the Biased Liberal Media, I've been rooting for Arizona Sen. John McCain, although I'm somewhat disappointed that he has sidestepped the only issue there that draws any attention outside the Palmetto State.
That, of course, is the Confederate battle flag which flies atop the statehouse in Columbia, beneath the U.S. flag and the official state flag.
The South Carolinians who support that flag argue that it's a symbol of history and heritage.
That's not how the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People views the issue. The NAACP has called the flag a symbol of treason and racism, and has called for a boycott of South Carolina.
A flag, in and of itself, is just a piece of cloth. It has meaning only insofar as we invest it with meaning. What meaning to assign to that flag?
The state law which put the flag on the capitol was passed in 1962. Some say it was intended as a statement to the federal government about how South Carolina felt about those Yankee civil rights laws; others say it was to honor the centennial of the Civil War.
But the Civil War (often called the War of Northern Aggression in those parts) did not commence in 1862. Most historians say the war began in 1861 with the Confederate shelling of Fort Sumter in the harbor of Charleston, S.C., although one might argue that it really began in 1856 in Bleeding Kansas.
Further, South Carolina adopted its ordinance of secession in December of 1860. This prompted one editor there to remark that the place was too small for a republic and too large for a lunatic asylum.
All this makes the centennial explanation sound rather spurious, but as both McCain and George W. Bush have said, it's really a matter for the people of South Carolina to decide.
One common South Carolina argument is that the flag symbolizes the Rebels' courageous resistance to Yankee invasion. The truth is that when Gen. William T. Sherman began marching north from Georgia in 1865, he met little resistance in South Carolina.
His army did cause considerable destruction -- like many northerners, Sherman saw South Carolina as the breeding ground of secession, and he wanted to teach the place a lesson.
The ironic result is that Sherman's route is now an important part of South Carolina's economy -- the places that federal soldiers pillaged and burned have become tourist attractions, and tourism, there as here, is a major industry.
Or so I heard from my brother, Tony, who lives in Columbia -- the last time we talked, I joked that maybe I should visit, just to see what Sherman left standing. Indeed I should, he said, rattling off a list of historic sites to see, although he added that it might be prudent if I kept my admiration for Sherman to myself during any visit.
Another irony from history is that South Carolina matters at all in a Republican primary.
The Republican party was founded in 1854 as a result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Dred Scott decision. It was a regional party of the Midwest and New England, organized specifically to oppose the Southern bloc in American politics.
Now look at the current Republican party. The senate majority leader is Trent Lott of Mississippi. Until last year, the speaker of the house of representatives was Newt Gingrich of Georgia, and he was supposed to be followed by Robert Livingston of Louisiana. The leading presidential candidate is George W. Bush of Texas.
All those states were part of the Confederacy. In the 11 Confederate states, seven governors are Republican, as are 14 of the 22 senators and 71 of the 125 representatives.
Does this mean that the Republican party has conquered the South? Not exactly -- not when Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond are Republicans.
It means instead that the South has captured, and turned to its own ends, the Republican party -- the party that was organized to oppose the Southern way and its influence on national life.
So perhaps the most accurate way to view that Confederate battle flag in Columbia is that it waves as a symbol of victory. The South lost on the battlefield, but not in the political arena.
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