A New and Powerful Meaning....

By now we have a pretty good idea about what will happen. The once-surging tide will now begin to recede … not because Confederate heritage advocates have prevailed (they have lost serious ground) but because people soon get interested in other things. ...  in fact it remains to be seen whether the discussion that commenced on the heels of the Charleston murders will persist before people grow tired of it or turn their attention to the Kardashians or Donald Trump. Certainly the debates have grown predictable once more (and a little boring); while I expect to see a few more flashpoints in the fight over Confederate heritage in the coming weeks, I think the front is stabilizing, so to speak, as people sort out gains and losses.  ~ Brooks D. Simpson

The discussion? There are not just discussions. There are rallies, rides, runs, protests, demonstrations... There are shows of support for Southern heritage, and they are occurring from one end of Dixie to another. They are big (a 4,000-person ride in central Florida) and small (a few folks flagging from an overpass in Arkansas).  On the surface, they are in support of the Confederate flag, or targeted monuments, or Confederate soldiers, or just Southern heritage.  "Not hate," as many of them have made clear to the media.

But there is a deeper symbolism to the flag, and that is what's being championed at these rallies  -- which are indeed a surging tide that, contrary to Simpson's wishful thinking, are increasing, not receding. And despite the wish of assorted leftists and self-styled "anti-racists," this show of support is not just a new manifestation of "racism" and "white supremacy." There may be a few people with that motivation, but they are the very small exception, not the rule.

For decades, the war on Southern and Confederate heritage has proceded at a steady but slower pace. Although it appeared to be spearheaded by the NAACP, it was really orchestrated by the larger forces of leftism in the country that have taken hold of increasing segments of US culture since World War Two.

We have watched our heritage get erased across the South.  Dixie, both the song and the word (remember how many businesses in the South used to be named Dixie?) pretty much disappeared. "Rebels" team mascots in high schools and universities, were replaced. Streets, parks and schools named for Confederate heroes were renamed. And the flag was warred against incessantly. 

This occurred mostly in silence, mostly with little or no protest. It was partly because we believed the claims that these things were "racist" and blacks were genuinely offended by them. And though floggers and their ilk would never believe it, Southerners are a considerate people and don't like to offend others.

But there was also another part to the equation. If you did not go along with the evilization of your culture and the erasure of your heritage, you were a racist, which is the worst thing a human being can be (except slave-holder) these days.  We did not want to be labeled "racist" -- first because it was almost always not true and second because being so labeled could be charged with serious consequences -- failure in school, or loss of one's job, etc.

So we remained silent as the destruction of our heritage continued. But our silence did not mean we agreed with it or liked it, only that we accepted it because circumstance dictated that we must.

All of that changed in the aftermath of Nikki Haley's removal of the battle flag from the Confederate soldiers memorial on the capitol gounds in Columbia.  Having successfully, though falsely, tainted the flag with the responsibility of the horrific murders in Charleston, Haley precipitated a new, stepped up war against flag that quickly widened in  scope to include anything Confederate, particularly monuments.

And suddenly, across the South, from one  end of Dixie to the other, the silence was shattered, and Southerners began to stand up for their heritage with rallies, rides, demonstrations, protests, and more.  On July 28, The Huffington Post claimed that there had been 132 proConfederate flag rallies since the shooting in Charleston.  Several people on Facebook said they knew of rallies not counted in the 132, so there were actually more. (Pensacola's run and rally on July 19 was not included). And they continue, with more planned and more successfully held every week.

In the early days of this stepped up war against the flag and our heritage, when retailers were removing flags from their shelves and catalogs, the outpouring of support for the flag was astounding. NASCAR's announcement discouraging flag displays at its races went ignored; even die-hard fans were ready to give up their interest in NASCAR and posted they would be supporting smaller races at local tracks instead.

It was the same story when Alabama football coach Nick Saban issued a statement against the flag. Judging by comments on social media, very likely he changed nobody's mind, and I suspect that Confederate flags will blanket the stands at Alabama games this fall.

Despite this, Simpson is predicting that the "surging tide" of support for the flag will recede.

It won't, it will just change character, and here's why.  Despite flogger desire to believe this is a slight inflation of heritage-as-usual that will shrink back to normal, it is not. Of course, the rallies and demonstrations cannot continue as they are now. Fall will be here soon; the kids will be back in school, and one of the busiest holiday seasons of the year will occur.

But what's different is that people attending the rallies are no longer cowed, and they are meeting people who, like themselves, are stepping up to the plate to support their heritage. Basically, they are networking. And the next step is organizing -- to protect the visible artifacts of our heritage, flags, monuments and names, but to strengthen the whole of our culture. To keep the South Southern.

Which leads me to a comment from the American Thinker article by Richard F. Miniter I recently linked to. The awakening of average Southerners to the targeting of their heritage, particularly embodied in the Confederate battle flag, means that the current campaign may indeed, wind up "...infusing the Confederate battle flag with a new and more powerful meaning." 

"...a new and more powerful meaning..."

This would be the death knell for those who are striving so assiduously to confine the total meaning of the flag to slavery and racism, and flogger types are not going to like that.

It will not only reinforce the flag as a symbol of "a unique regional identity." The flag will in turn reinforce that identity. As Miniter said, that “unique regional identity” is a fork in the liberal’s eye.

What is it besides flags and monuments that makes up this unique regional identity? Miniter identifies it as the South's "abiding esteem for bravery, property rights, guns, business, and traditional families."  It is a "vibrant culture offers an attractive alternative civilization to the one the liberals have been so carefully crafting elsewhere."

He continues,

To the disgust of liberals, the young people there seem to want to grow up to be just like the older folks they’re dancing next to.  And you can’t stop them.

And that’s why liberals want to kill the Confederate battle flag.

Because Texas is more fun than Chicago, Wyoming than the Bronx, the Shenandoah than Oakland.  ... Your home, your church – more fun.  And safer is more fun, too, than the blue-state liberal view of crime as a sociological phenomenon best addressed by counseling. 

And just when everything looked like it was going the left's way. Leftist America now has gay marriage, gay Scout leaders, taxpayer-funded baby-parts trafficking, a pro-Muslim, anti-Israel federal government that enables Muslim terrorists, an emasculated and decimated military, no restrictions on the flood-tide of illegal immigrants, and on and on.

And now this, this flag rallying.  Darn.

What those people at all those flag rallies really represent to leftists is a brake on their headlong rush to America's demise.  That is the  "... new and more powerful meaning..." of the flag -- America, as it was originally intended, good and strong and free....

So "Destroy the Honor" and Simpson and the floggers and their followers can sift the Internet with a fine-toothed comb to find and focus on a hand full of "racists" and "white supremacists". They can use these nobodies in an attempt to taint the vast legions of good, decent folks who support the flag and its emergent new and more powerful meaning. But they won't be successful.  It's way, way beyond them now. The genie is out of the bottle, and there is no going back...