Off Point
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I've been following the Georgia flag broohaha for a while now. This is partly because I read Southern Appeal at least every other day. Mostly it's because my roomate from law school is from Atlanta (as he puts it "the city-state of Atlanta which just happens to share a physical presence with Georgia"). As a Kentucky boy transplanted to Virginia, I fell obligated to put my two cents in (don't ask me why).
For those of you who haven't been following this matter, (A) Georgia had a flag which had the State seal on the left third and the Confederate bars on the right until 1956.
(B) Then, in reaction to the federal supreme court forcing integration of schools, the Legislature took the bars off and replaced them with the Confederate battle flag.
Any realistic analysis of the replacement has to take into account that the battle flag was long ago appropriated by the Klan and those of its ilk. The replacement was definitely a statement (and not "heritage").
(C) Fast forward to the 90's. Certain trends come into play. First the political climate of the South has changed and African-Americans have become a strong voice. Second, the NAACP runs out of serious issues to address - or more realistically, it runs out of sexy issues to pursue (trying to improve elementary ed. is too long term and hard to get news to cover). It turned its attention to States which used Confederate flags, threatening boycotts and putting pressure on companies to harm the offenders. Some rejected the NAACP's pressure outright: Mississippi held a citizen vote and its flag was overwhelmingly affirmed by its citizens. Some compromised: South Carolina moved the Confederate flag from its capital building to a Confederate memorial in front of the capital. The NAACP maintains its boycotts on these areas. It ignores the will of the people in one case and ignores a compromise which basically gave it what it wanted in the other. It is so bad in S.C. that Democratic candidates are tap dancing about campaigning there (Edwards is pandering).
But Georgia avoided all that and just caved. "[Governor] Barnes furtively and purposefully spent . . . 12 months orchestrating a behind-the-scenes effort to forge a coalition that could move rapidly to effect a flag change before opposition could be mounted to oppose it."
The flag ended up looking like this:
This flag was voted the ugliest flag in America. At least one Georgian sued because the flag violated laws. The Republican candidate in the next gubenatorial election repudiated this change and promised a vote by citizens on whether to go back to the old flag; as a direct result of the flag hijacking the first non-Democratic governor in 134 years was elected, a Republican was voted into the U.S. Senate, the Republicans gained control of 8 of Georgia's 12 House seats, the Republican party got control of the State Senate when four Democratic Senators switched parties, and "State Senate Majority Leader Charles Walker and 28-year House Speaker Tom Murphy, the capo di capi of Georgia Democratic politicians, also both lost."
Then the dance began and after a lot of manuevering the Legislature finally adopted the Confederate national flag:
Actually it adopted this flag:
The only differences are the inclusion of the Georgia seal and "In God we Trust. The Stars on the Confederate national flag increased as new States joined until there were 13 as on the Georgia flag.
Up till the last moment it appeared as though the Confederate battle flag would still be on the State citizen referendum but at the last moment that was snatched away. Nobody on either side is happy but it looks like a compromise which might work.
Still there are already people who are finding fault in the new flag. How dare the flag mention God?
In the end, I think the citizens of Georgia have been very, very poorly treated. They should be given the choice but their government does not trust democracy and therefore will never allow them to choose.
Of course it could be worse; the Legislature could have chosen this Georgian flag:
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