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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DMaA who wrote (83982)	11/22/2000 1:07:29 AM
From: Johannes Pilch	Respond to of 769670

To many people his saying the flag issue was a local issue was not only false, but was simply a way for him to avoid giving his opinion. Public funding of the controversial flag is philosophically the same as, say, public funding of art and other such items. It is important to many people, across the country that they discover the position of a potential president on this issue to judge his consistency, character and to discover whether he identifies with the contingent that supports the flag. South Carolina was but the local venue of the argument. But the argument’s import spans the nation. Many blacks (and whites) in many other states want to know Bush’s philosophy on public support of this symbol. When Bush claimed the flag issue was simply a local issue, he erred, dismissing the concerns of these Americans by avoiding the issue entirely. He in effect showed them that the issue was unworthy of a frank and direct response. The Dems understood this, and when they saw Bush’s feeble response, they demagogued the issue by employing much more direct and effective emotionalism. How do you respond to this democrat statement? “If you think the issue is merely local, then you agree that non-South Carolinians should not be concerned should the people of South Carolina fly the Swastika above the SC statehouse.” The statement instantly shows that the Confederate Flag issue is philosophically not merely a local issue. Yet Bush continued to avoid it on this pretense. Getting to the point, it is this sort of thing that reinforces the fears of many blacks that the GOP is in bed with racists. We may angrily lament that blacks foolishly support the Dems, but the fact is, these folks are generally shell-shocked by slavery and Jim Crow. The Confederate Flag was raised over SC as a protest against the end of Jim Crow. Klansmen and many other white supremacists wave this flag in particular. The flag led the forces of the mid-nineteenth century south, forces whose leaders clearly maintained that they seceded and fought to preserve the "blessings of African slavery." So then when blacks see high GOP leaders such as Trent Lott and George Bush casually dismissing the issue or even honouring it, they understandably reject the GOP.