I spent a few years in North Carolina in the USAF. I saw a billboard out on a country road southwest of Seymour Johnson AFB that was just a white horse on a blue background and said "This is KKK Country". I also saw a rally just off a country road in the same area, a large gathering of people. No burning crosses (it was daylight) but there was literally a few people with white robes on. They had blue flags with a white horse on them. There was as many kids there as adults. People talk about the KKK like it is some kind of right wing group. The southern democrats formed the KKK in response to the civil liberties given blacks by the North during Reconstruction. How they managed to turn that story around with propaganda over the years is hard to figure but there it is. Now the KKK is right wing. Up is Down. Left is Right.
And folks should also keep in mind that KKK members have run for local & state offices in North Carolina in 2010, 2012, and 2014 --- all of them ran as Democrats. I have documented this in previous threads. In the 1990s our state legislature included at least 13 members of the KKK --- all of them Democrats from rural counties. https://www.elitetrader.com/et/thre...-inch-of-his-life.281897/page-12#post-3939035
I think the current issue is the Dem party has actively tried to denounce them and not include them in the party. The only reasons such Dems have won in the South is they run on their KKK platform which appeals to the people in that district or rural area. GOP has tried to separate from those who came over but it morphed into a fringe white nationalist group hidden in the Bible belt that Trump thinks has good people. Bottom line it is a white issue that has cancered itself in both parties.
And it's accomplished so much. When this "movement" wants to have a serious discussion about where the real problem is give me a call. So long as they think burning flags, tearing down statues and buildings is the way to go I have no time to hear any of their grievances, legitimate or not. Now if they want to seriously discuss how we institute term limits, impose true and meaningful campaign finance reform, abandon the lobbying process, get serious about infrastructure restoration, hold Wall Street Executives responsible for the financial disasters they create, punish with taxes those companies to move jobs overseas, give tax breaks to those that stay local, enforce immigration law and punish employers who hire illegals, create a temporary worker status for illegal immigrants with a quick path towards citizenship, improve and allocate more money for mental health and drug treatment issues, and get the fuck out of wars we have no intention of winning, then yeah, count me in. Act like 2 year olds, go fuck yourself, what I got for you then is a one way ticket to hell which we may be riding together, the more the better.
Why are you willing to fall on your sword for a flag that all historians admit was used as a symbol of the KKK and white supremacy groups long after war was over AND also represents the fighting flag of a rebel army with the intent to undermine the U.S. government. We could numerous posts of how the flag was reborn in the 1910-1930 time period when whites wanted to enforce Jim Crow and KKK was growing across the South using the Flag as one of its symbols of a past they revered because of the status of Blacks back then. All this other talk about taxes and mental health are separate issues that have nothing to do with the Confederate flag... What is the rationale because all of us want to know...
Because the elimination of the flag and these monuments has done nothing, is doing nothing, will do nothing to eliminate any aspect of the problem they're fighting against, or for. It's wasted effort if looking for actual solutions, and only gives some short term satisfaction that they're actually accomplishing something. The "other talk" has everything to do with solving the actual problem. You, and they want photo ops, I want actual progress. I try not to waste time, other than posting on the ET political forum, which has proven to be a complete waste of time over and extended period of what is now many years. I, like everyone else here, must have some level of masochism in ourselves.
The call for the elimination of the flag and monuments has been going on for many many years and because the message is FINALLY getting heard you are calling it photo ops and demand people shit up about it and look for progress elsewhere? Shit that is nice of you to declare that 100 years of offense at the symbols finally being listened to then we should just shut the fuck up about it and be happy the powers that be finally listened. Why cannot real solutions be worked on at the same time or is our minds only capable of one thing at a time. Did the government need to wait to address the other problems or are they simply brushing them aside like they did the protests on the confederate flag and hoping it takes another 50 years before they are forced to make reforms. Police been beating up Black folk since the 1960s on TV and it seems to continue though not as large scale. When is that change coming again? It took almost a 100 years to reverse the display of flags and generals of the rebels and subsequent white supremacy movement and you are wondering why there is no progress else where on more important things? Let's talk in 100 years....
Minneapolis some secret base for confederates looking to re-fight the civil war? Lots of those rebel flags flying there? Must be dozens of Confederate statues around town? No, Minneapolis is one of the most left leaning democratic cities in America, been that way for 50 years, yet a black man was murdered by a white cop, and no statues or flags made that happen. Let me know when appeasing the mob results in the mob being satisfied and not looking for the next thing on their list to be declared offensive.