Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush continued his sorta-against-the-grain streak on a campaign stop earlier this week when he defended his decision to remove the Confederate flag from the state capitol when he was governor of Florida. However, his defense ended up defending the Confederacy. The good ol’, wholesome Confederacy! Here’s more from TPM:
"The problem with the Confederate flag isn't the Confederacy, the problem with the Confederate flag is what it began to represent later," Bush said while on a campaign stop. "And that's what we have to avoid to heal those wounds."
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"I moved all of the flags off the state premises, into the Florida museum, where they would be honored, because it was part of our heritage, but it would not be a visible sign of what Florida is about," he said, adding that he avoided a big "political fight" because he did so "unilaterally."
"There's a way to find the right balance, as you're bringing up, because, look, the Confederacy is a part of our heritage, and it should be respected like other parts," he said. "It doesn't have to define who we are either. Because that symbol -- the problem with the Confederate flag isn't the Confederacy, the problem with the Confederate flag is what it began to represent later. And that's what we have to avoid to heal those wounds."
Jeb! is right about the fact that the Confederate flag did become a symbol of Civil Rights-era hatred and opposition to integration. And Florida didn’t raise the flag until 1978, which supports the notion that it was a decision based more on opposition than “heritage,” whatever that entails.
However, Bush’s contention that “the problem with the Confederate flag isn’t the Confederacy” is one step forward, two steps back. It’s more pandering to the romantic idea that the Lost Cause of the Confederacy was noble and not rooted in white supremacy. But the Confederacy stood and fought for slavery, and that very history is what enables its current status as a talisman for hatred.
The “wounds” that Bush refers to were first inflicted by slavery. Bush’s maneuvering as the “sensible” candidate still involves a good deal of pandering to a strain of racism that animates much of the party.