The Push-Back Begins . . . (Updated)

Here we go:

Some Spartanburg County lawmakers support removing the Confederate battle flag from the Statehouse grounds, but state Sen. Lee Bright, R-Spartanburg, characterized the movement to remove it and other Confederate monuments as a “Stalinist Purge.”

Shortly before Gov. Nikki Haley called on lawmakers to work together to have the flag removed, Bright said the flag doesn't symbolize hate to him but instead recognizes those who had fought with honor during the Civil War. People throughout history have misused symbols, and the Confederate battle flag is not an exception, Bright said. Just because a symbol may be abused doesn't mean it should be banned, he said.

Other radical right wingers are starting to come out of the woodwork to criticize Gov. Haley's call to take down the flag.  One conservative tweeted yesterday: "I hope the voters remember this and send her ass packing." Republican Alabama Rep. Gary Palmer stated yesterday that calls to remove the flag came from "people that have an agenda seeking to exploit a tragedy," and he concluded: "to me, that’s beyond contempt."

Even some Republicans who now support the effort to remove the flag are saying that the flag's symbolism was co-opted by a bunch of radical racists.  Of course, such an attempt to re-write history is complete bullshit.

John Oliver said it best the other night when he responded to Sen. Lindsey Graham's statement that the confederate flag has been used by some folks "in a racist way"  Oliver's response:

"Yeah, it has -- in fact, I believe the first time the confederate flag was used in a racist way was the exact second they finish sewing the very first one -- it was right around that time."

Anyway, I stand by my statement that South Carolina will not take that flag down. The racists in South Carolina who designed the original "compromise" to take the flag off the capitol dome -- and move it to an even more prominent place in front of the statehouse -- anticipated that future attempts would be made to take the flag down entirely.  And that is why they made it very hard to do so: it would require a two-thirds vote from both houses of the General Assembly.

Good luck with that.

UPDATE:  Go here to read more on why the flag will not be coming down.  Read this as well.