SC Waves the White Flag on the Confederacy

     So here we are in 2015 and it took the gruesome execution of 9 black church goers in Charleston to finally get South Carolina to take down the Confederate flag-the same one that Dylann Roof had on his license plate. 

     "South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) will call for the Confederate flag to be removed from the state capitol, multiple outlets reported Monday."

     "Haley is set to speak at a press conference at 4 p.m. ET Monday. According to CNNand AP, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) will join the governor and call for the flag to be placed in a museum."

     "Graham previously said the flag "is part of who we are," but that he would be "fine" with taking the symbol down."

      "Debate over the flag was reignited after nine people were shot and killed during a prayer meeting at a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina. When flags were lowered to half-staff in remembrance of those who were killed, the Confederate flag -- which has flown next to the Confederate Soldier's Monument since 2000, when it was removed from atop the South Carolina capitol dome -- didn't budge, because it's held in place by a padlock. By law, the flag couldn't be removed."

      "Several politicians have weighed in on the flag, with 2012 presidential rivals Mitt Romney (R) and President Barack Obama agreeing that the flag should come down. Some South Carolina politicians had a different take, with Rep. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.)saying removing the flag "should not be the immediate solution."

     http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/22/south-carolina-confederate-flag_n_7637644.html

     Great euphemism by Congressman Sanford. What exactly is the immediate solution? For the most part Republicans have been very short on solutions. They are long on telling what didn't cause the problem but don't worry about actual solutions so much. 

    http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2015/06/whats-in-confederate-flag.html

    Meanwhile, conservatives thought they had a winning obfuscation in claiming that the Confederate flag was there at the pleasure of the Democrats. 

   "Tantaros, co-host of the Fox News show “Outnumbered,” said the flag was flown by southern Democrats and wasn’t “a Republican flag.”

     "Tantaros made her comments in light of responses GOP presidential candidates such as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) and Rick Santorum have given about their take on the potential removal of the flag."

     “You know what baffles the mind?” Tantaros said. “This isn't a Republican flag. Historically this was the flag of southern Democrats, remember that, fact?”

      “I find this flag offensive,” Tantaros continued. “This flag represents the fight in slavery and it was a flag that the southern Democrats — Democrats — used to fly against Northern Republicans so I’m not sure why Republicans are getting peppered over this.”

     http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/andrea-tantaros-confederate-flag-charleston

     Maybe because that was 155 years ago and a few things have changed since then. 

     1. The Southern Democrats moved North

     2. The Northern Republicans moved South

     3. Yet the GOP that now runs SC have refused to take down the ;Democrats' flag.'

     Overall, there is this willful inability on the part of the Right to admit that this was a racially motivated terrorist act. Conservatives don't want to admit either-or that it wouldn't have happened if guns weren't available. 

     "We live in an age where mass shootings are so common that there is now a template for politicians to plug in the victim’s names, the date and location of the massacre, and synonyms for words like “tragedy” and “horror.” In the last 36 hours, we've heard ersatz condolences filled with hollow words, anodyne phrases about "unimaginable" horrors.

     "But the Charleston church shooting that left nine African-Americans dead while they prayed is not an inexplicable tragedy. It simply took white rage and racism and conservative political race-baiting to their logical conclusions. It echoes a disturbing trend in right-wing media inflaming fringe factions, encouraging maximum armament, and then turning around after a tragedy and saying “we had no idea this would happen.”

     "On Wednesday night, South Carolina’s governor Nikki Haley trotted out a boilerplate statement, calling the shooting a “senseless tragedy.” One could excuse this choice of words as a rushed assumption issued in real time, but as more and more details about Dylann Roof surfaced, conservatives refused to face the music. One by one, politicians and pundits acted like this terrorist act was one of life’s great unsolvable mysteries."

    “We don't know the motivation of the person who did it," Rudy Guiliani said yesterday. "Maybe he hates Christian churches. Maybe he hates black churches or he's gonna go find another one. Who knows." Donald Trump, in a tweet yesterday, said the crime was “incomprehensible.”

     "Last night, a Wall Street Journal columnist wrote: "What causes young men such as Dylann Roof to erupt in homicidal rage, whatever their motivation, is a problem that defies explanation beyond the reality that evil still stalks humanity. It is no small solace that in committing such an act today, he stands alone."

      

     http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/conservatives-dont-know-why-charleston-happened

     This agnosticism means that nothing will be done. When libertarians declare that a la the Warren Commission 'It's a tragedy, wrapped inside of an enigma'-obviously there can't be any policy response which is the whole point of libertarianism. If Roof were a Muslim then it wouldn't be a Muslim in their mind. 

     That the Right denies this is a social issue that requires a social issue is not surprising when you recall that libertarians deny that society exists at all. Remember when Margaret Thatcher said this?

     http://briandeer.com/social/thatcher-society.htm

     http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2015/06/what-happened-in-charleston-yesterday.html