GOP bigwig and almost-certain Mississippi governor Haley Barbour is busily wrapping himself in the Confederate Battle Flag via his campaign literature, no doubt to appeal to those who see removing the symbol from the state flag as creeping Yankee-ism. Many in the state (two years ago, the vote was 2 to 1 to keep the current state flag) continue to insist that it’s a symbol of “heritage, not hate,” and that it’s tied to Southern history and not the war specifically.

This is, of course, absurdly wrong. The battle flag wasn’t used until the South took up arms against the Union and its Constitution. It’s not about State’s Rights (an argument which seems to suggest that states need not honor the Bill of Rights). It’s not about heritage. It’s about a war fought over slavery, and our ancestors seemed to think owning people was a good idea — or, at least, they wanted to fight for their right to do so.

The most stunning thing to me is how hell-bent some folks seem on keeping the battle flag despite how offensive it is to a huge percentage of Americans and Mississippians. Even if the heritage argument held water, it’s still indisputably a flag tied directly to a treasonous regime dedicated to positions such as this:

Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea [i.e., opposing the notion that all men are created equal – ed]; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery — subordination to the superior race — is his natural and normal condition. March, 1861 speech by CSA VP Alexander Stephens, cited here.

Given that, what do we gain by insisting on its continued presence on our flags? And what do we lose? And what would our mommas say about us clinging to this battle flag despite the distress it causes the decendents of those same slaves? What does this say about us? And what does Barbour’s cynical use of it, and almost certain success therein, say about my home state?

I want to be proud of Mississippi. I really do. But issues like Barbour and the battle flag make it damned hard to convince outsiders that my home state isn’t full of unreconstructed racists.