The flag depicted above was not the official flag of the traitorous Confederate States of America, but it is the flag they most often carried into battle -- and it is the flag most often connected to the CSA. It is also the symbol of racism in America these days.I know that there are those who will tell you it is just a symbol of "Southern pride" and has nothing to do with any racial views. These are the same people who claim the Civil War was not fought over slavery, but "states rights". They are lying, and they know it. They just don't want to be honest about their racism, because while there are still too many racists in this country, they are a diminishing minority -- and they know that decent people don't approve of their racial depravity.
The truth is that the Civil War would never have been fought if slavery had not existed, and all you have to do is read the constitutions of the 13 states that tried to leave the union to know that. They made it very clear that the right they were defending was the right to enslave their fellow humans. The flag above was at that time a symbol of those who supported slavery -- and today it represents something very similar. It represents hate and racism.
Many racists today prefer to keep their beliefs secret, because they know they will probably be vilified for expressing those beliefs. But many think they can display their racism by displaying the odious flag above, while trying to cloak its reality with a term like "Southern pride". It doesn't work. If you see anyone displaying this symbol of hate, you can be sure they harbor racist beliefs (whether they want to admit it or not). I grew up in one of those 13 states (Texas), and I can assure you that there are many ways to display pride in a home state without displaying a symbol of hate and racism.
That brings me to my reason for this post. A recent YouGov Poll (conducted on October 14th and 15th of 2013 of 1,000 adult Americans, with a margin of error of about 4.3 points) surveyed Americans about this symbol. And I believe it presents a pretty clear snapshot of racism in America today. The results of the survey are displayed in the charts below.
Of particular interest to me was what it showed about the Republican Party. Republicans publicly deny that they are the party preferred by racists, but this poll shows that is just not true. While too many Americans in general say the flag just represents "Southern pride", the only political group with a majority having that belief is the Republican Party. And in the second chart, which shows those who approve of flying that racist symbol in public, note that the Republicans are the only group that have more approving than disapproving. That speaks for itself.
