AynRandy's Cowardice on the Flag of Treason

Wonkette has graded the responses to what Charlie Pierce calls the Home Office of Sedition refusing to remove the confederate flag from the state Capitol grounds* by the repug candidates for president, and Rand Paul comes in next-to-dead-laste

Rand Paul:

A spokesman for Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he had no comment.

Let's not forget what the Tribble-Toupeed One is refused to comment on.

Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money:

What makes the Confederate a white supremacist symbol is that the Confederacy was explicitly founded to protect slavery, and the Confederate flag was then revived as a symbol supporting private and state violence to maintain white supremacy in the South during the Civil Rights era. It’s pretty hard to argue that someone engaging in white supremacist violence is “hijacking” or “perverting” the “main symbol of the Confederacy” when white supremacist violence is what the Confederacy and its main symbol are all about.

White South Carolina native Jack Jenkins:

While the Confederate flag is certainly about heritage, it is and always has been about hate. By being part of Roof’s constellation of negative influences, the symbol of the Confederacy — and the history behind it — is once again associated with the pointless murder of people of color. A flag didn’t create Roof’s apparent hostility towards black people, but the state’s obsession with it fomented his hatred with misguided pride. A flag didn’t guide his hand as he loaded his gun on Wednesday, but it gave him a banner under which to justify his actions. And a flag didn’t force Roof to open fire on a group of unarmed African American worshippers during a church Bible study, but it was waving all the same — in license plate form — as he drove away from the slaughter.

* Way too fucking little, way too fucking late, Nikki. Burn them. Burn them all.