We begin today's roundup with
The New York Times and its call for the removal of the Confederate flag from the South Carolina state capitol:
Those who have defended keeping the Confederate flag flying at the Capitol have often described it as merely a commemoration to the Civil War dead. But as the writer K. Michael Prince documents in “Rally ’Round the Flag, Boys!,” flags were not used in this way at the Confederate memorial on the Capitol grounds in the late 19th or early 20th centuries. Only in later decades was the flag introduced — and steadily elevated in importance — to bolster the idea of white supremacy at moments when South Carolina’s Jim Crow-era government came under federal pressure to allow black citizens even nominal civil rights. [...]
Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican presidential candidate from South Carolina, who initially said the flag was “part of who we are,” urged the Legislature to remove the flag from the Capitol grounds. He said, “I hope that, by removing the flag, we can take another step toward healing and recognition — and a sign that South Carolina is moving forward.” State lawmakers who must vote on removing it need to do that now and show the nation they understand the pain this symbol of hate and brutality causes to this day.
Marc Ambinder at The Week:
Opposition to civil rights legislation, to integration, to miscegenation, to social equality for black people — these are the major plot points that make up the flag's recent history. Not Vietnam. Not opposition to Northern culture or values. Not tourism. Not ObamaCare. Not anything else.
There's only one uncontrived association that's a step removed from racial subjugation, and it's the initial post-war use of the flag: to celebrate the victories of the Confederate army and to mourn those who died while fighting in the Civil War. But today, 150 years later, such flags are best and most appropriate displayed in museums and at cemeteries.
It should not be controversial to say that people should not spend their days mourning relatives they never knew from a war that ended 150 years ago, especially if that feeling is so paramount that it outweighs the sense of brotherhood they might feel toward fellow humans who are alive, and for whom the flag's presence and endorsement by the government is the personification of the evil of white supremacy.
More analysis below the fold.
The Denver Post:
At a time when South Carolinians of all races are coming together to express solidarity against racial violence, the battle flag's prominence remains an open sore.
Meanwhile, the debate over the Confederate flag gave Republican candidates for president an ideal opportunity to try to broaden the party's base, and most of them flubbed it by saying the decision was best left to South Carolina.
Of course the state must decide. But how should it decide? A number of candidates — including Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, John Kasich and Carly Fiorina — clearly think the flag should go, but stopped short of urging South Carolina to act.
Bloomberg's editors:
The claim that the flag must be honored above other elements of regional “heritage” is a remarkable one. Southern heritage is far too rich to be contained in the South. American arts and letters were for a long time dominated by Southerners, including one of the first Americans to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. The music of the South -- country, blues and their glorious devil spawn, rock 'n' roll -- swept every city and holler of the continent and went on to shape popular music worldwide in a way that no other region on earth can claim. Southern cuisine and hospitality are justly venerated.
The heritage of the Confederate battle flag is a very different thing. The flag accompanied and rallied Confederate troops at war. Whether those troops fought bravely or not is hardly the most salient point. It's what they fought for that matters: the preservation of slavery. The re-emergence of the flag in the mid-20th century, with the express purpose of rallying racist opposition to civil and human rights for black Americans, only deepened the flag's association with racist violence.
William Cummings at USA Today says removing the flag won't be easy:
Winning a vote to remove the flag will be no small feat, however, and it almost certainly won't happen by Wednesday. [...] Kimpson, a Democrat, says there is a "growing chorus" of members interested in taking up a debate on the flag during Tuesday's session, but even to bring the matter up for discussion would require the support of two-thirds of the legislators.
What's more, even if lawmakers agree to discuss a bill calling for the flag's removal, procedural hurdles will take time to overcome, State Rep. Todd Rutherford, also a Democrat, says. The bill would have to clear the judiciary committee and then come back to the floor for debate, Rutherford says.
Sally Jenkins, writing at The Washington Post:
If you went to Germany and saw a war memorial with a Nazi flag flying over it, what would you think of those people? You might think they were unrepentant. You might think they were in a lingering state of denial about their national atrocities. The Confederate battle flag is an American swastika, the relic of traitors and totalitarians, symbol of a brutal regime, not a republic. The Confederacy was treason in defense of a still deeper crime against humanity: slavery. If weaklings find racial hatred to be a romantic expression of American strength and purity, make no mistake that it begins by unwinding a red thread from that flag.
Yet the governor of South Carolina found it easier to call for the execution of this milkweed boy than it was for her to finally call for the lowering of that banner. Why?
Jay Bookman at The Atlanta Journal Constitution:
No, the flag’s removal will not end racism. It won’t bring back the nine people shot down during Bible study in their church last week. But that flag was put in its place of honor by an act of the state Legislature in 1962 to symbolize official support for racism and segregation, and it must be removed to dispel any doubt in any minds that such sentiments are still sanctioned or even remotely acceptable.
Pull it down. And leave the flagpole, with its lanyard empty and clanging against the pole in the breeze. Leave it as a rebuke, so that people can remember what used to be there, but is now gone.