WaPo Op-Ed writer
Richard Cohen will not often find himself on the Daily Kos front page. He is frequently silly, a "shorter Tom Friedman," but this morning he opens up the Rock the Vote debate in a refreshing way.
For some people, the Confederate flag is a loathsome symbol. But we all know what Dean meant. And we know Dean is not a racist. Contrast what he said with what Ronald Reagan said and did in 1980, when he began his campaign with a homage to states' rights at the Neshoba County Fair -- in the very Mississippi county where in 1964 three civil rights workers were murdered.
Reagan took much grief for that -- and well he should have. It mattered greatly that he was the standard-bearer of a party that was following the "Southern strategy," a thinly disguised appeal to white bigotry.
Dean is in another category altogether, but you would not know it from the way he was treated by fellow Democratic presidential candidates Tuesday in Boston. Sharpton was the most indignant, demanding that Dean "apologize." This was an odd word for Sharpton to utter, because that's precisely what he refused to do after falsely accusing Steven Pagones in 1988 of raping the infamous Tawana Brawley. Had Dean been faster on his feet, he might have turned to Sharpton and said, "You first."
It's hard -- nay, impossible -- to meet Sharpton and not like him. He is personable and, in a way, scary smart. But he does not belong on the platform with the other candidates, because he is not trying to unseat George W. Bush as president but Jesse Jackson as the titular leader of black America. In fact, it was probably the recent endorsement of Dean by Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. that set Sharpton off. Sharpton accused Dean of promoting "an anti-black agenda," a far worse slur than anything Dean said about the Confederate flag.
It is both instructive and ironic that on the night the Democrats were roasting Dean, GOP candidates won gubernatorial races in Kentucky and Mississippi. It was further proof that the once solidly Democratic South is now solidly Republican -- and it will go that way come 2004 if the Democratic candidates keep up this nonsense.
John Edwards, who also jumped on Dean for his remark about the rebel flag, is not, like Sharpton, a political opportunist. Anyone who has spoken to Edwards about race can see it is a subject of great passion for him. But he, too, had to know that Dean merely put his foot in his considerable mouth -- a remark that revealed political naivete, not racial insensitivity or something worse.
Context is everything in life as well as politics. When the Confederate flag was an issue during the South Carolina primary in 2000, it was already framed in such a way that it became a matter of conscience. But the way Dean used it -- a shorthand reference to the white, working-class Southern men who have abandoned the Democratic Party -- was altogether different.
The Bush administration has messed up the occupation of Iraq. The federal bench is being seeded with Bush-appointed reactionaries. The fight against abortion has become a fight against common sense, and little is being done to regulate corporate greed. Yet the Democratic presidential candidates spend their time squabbling about a Confederate flag decal, absurdly letting Al Sharpton function as the party's conscience.
Bush had a good night.
One of the things a good golf coach will teach you is that you always need to keep your eye on the ball. We Dems need to decide what is the ball. The fate of the Republic is at stake in this election.