Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Removing Confederate Flag is Just the Start — The Left Will Demand Reparations for Slavery

Yep, from the radical left's point of view, the political end of the Confederate Flag is the beginning of the final assault on American conservatism. The left's hatred and bloodlust is insatiable.

Reparations for slavery. That's the next frontier in the debate, and then once that's done, the final demonization of traditional values. You're getting your "Hope and Change." Stand in the way, and expect the knock in the night. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is turning as we speak.

From Jill Lawrence, at U.S. News and World Report, "Getting Rid of the Confederate Flag Is the Easy Part – Hard Work Remains":

It's not what anyone wants to hear, but compassion and prayers and even rejecting the Confederate flag – as South Carolina appears poised to do -- are the simplest tasks facing America after Charleston.

Rarely is there a tragedy that fuses so many troubling and inflammatory elements. Race and racism, guns and mental illness, religion and terrorism, slavery and the Civil War, all in a terrible roiling stew. Confronting all of that will be divisive and expensive, especially if we do what we should and offer reparations for slavery.

As a first response, compassion and prayers are commendable, as is appreciation of the grace and forgiveness shown by relatives of the victims in the Mother Emanuel AME church shooting. Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren has more ideas in that vein: Be peacemakers and healers, stand for justice, "model integration in our churches." Those are constructive suggestions for everyone.

But there's no way to address our fundamental problems without diving deep into politics. That starts with the flag, which only now is being called out by many for what it is: a symbol of slavery and a breakaway self-proclaimed nation built on a pernicious belief in white superiority....

Exiling that flag is, in the end, symbolic. There are at least four more steps we need that go well beyond that. I've arranged them in the order that I consider least to most controversial.

First, we need to track and treat mental illness to a much greater degree than we do. This will involve more spending and more support for people who suspect a friend or relative might pose a danger. One immediate opportunity to increase access to mental health care is for Texas, Florida and other holdout states to adopt the Medicaid expansion in the Affordable Care Act.

We also need to track domestic terrorism, including groups based on hatred of blacks and other minorities...

These are political realities. The shooter was enamored of the Confederate flag. Earl Holt, leader of the council the shooter admired, has contributed money to many Republicans and their political action committees, including 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney and 2016 candidates Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Rick Santorum.

The GOP might also want to ponder this: According to Sylvia Johnson, whose cousin died in the Charleston attack and who spoke with one of the survivors, the shooter told his victims: "I have to do it. You rape our women, and you're taking over our country. And you have to go." How different is that from what Donald Trump said of Mexicans in his announcement speech? "They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists ... It's gotta stop, and it's gotta stop fast."

The sooner Republicans explicitly reject the flag, Holt's money and Trump's rhetoric, the better.

Broadly popular gun safety measures such as comprehensive background checks present the next level of challenge....

Finally, and most controversially, we should consider reparations...
Read the whole thing at the link, but as you can see, the left won't stop with the flag. And without a doubt, tearing it down is the right thing to do, but conservatives must beat back the left, mercilessly so. The left's allegations of racism won't stop, and demands for gun control won't either. Conservatives have the high ground now coming out of Nikki Haley's announcement and leftists can't stand it. They have to seize the day and raise the standard of moral clarity before it's too late.



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