Confederate Battle Flag a Symbol of Hate?

Two buttons offering support for one of Bill Clinton's presidential runs made the rounds on social media over the weekend.

It's important to note that there is no indicator that these buttons were actually made and distributed by the actual Clinton-Gore campaign. The second, with its cut-out photos of the candidates, almost certainly isn't.

One indicator that it isn't official is that it lacks a union "bug," the little marker showing that a piece of campaign material was printed in a union shop. If you look at other Clinton-Gore buttons , nearly all — but not all — have a bug somewhere.

In the 1980s and 1990s, buttons played part of the role that Etsy, Zazzle and Cafepress play now. Buttonmakers were never hard to come by, and anyone who wanted to could make his or her own, offering whatever sentiment they wanted to. So just because these buttons exist doesn't mean they were sanctioned or approved by the campaign.

It also doesn't mean they weren't.

When Lindsay Graham says things like, “The flag represents to some people a civil war, and that was the symbol of one side. To others it’s a racist symbol, and it’s been used by people, it’s been used in a racist way,” he makes a mockery of the history. Yes, Senator, it does represent one side of the Civil War: the side that advocated slavery and secession. It’s the flag of treason.

Remember that time South Carolina attacked Fort Sumter? That’s the literal definition of treason. The states that seceded to become the Confederacy were actively engaged in open war against the United States government. A war they started because of the election of a man they deemed “hostile to slavery.” A war they fought to maintain the “heaven ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race.”

The troglodyte that murdered those people in South Carolina wanted to fire the opening shots in a new race war. He is a Confederate in every sense of the word: he is a white supremacist; he is a mass murderer; he is a terrorist; he is a traitor.

The worst part is that he is not some aberration. Oh, we want to comfort and assure ourselves that he is, that he has some mental issue, or that he’s evil, or some other easy excuse that absolves us all of responsibility.

His actions were heinous, but he is the product of a media and culture that protects the ignorant and glorifies division. This is the “heritage” celebrated by those who fly the Confederate flag.