Romney Calls On SC To Remove Confederate Flag:"it is a symbol of racial hatred. Remove it now"

[kpete]

Take down the ConfederateFlag at the SC Capitol. To many, it is a symbol of racial hatred. Remove it now to honor #Charleston victims.
https://twitter.com/MittRomney/status/612276050182049792

The former Republican presidential nominee has long been opposed to the flag, saying in a 2008 debate that it "shouldn’t be flown" and "that’s not a flag I recognize."

Calls for the flag's removal have grown in the wake of a shooting at a historically black church in Charleston Wednesday night that left nine people dead at the hands of a white gunman. NAACP President Cornell Brooks also called Friday for the flag's removal and a White House spokesman said President Barack Obama thinks the flag belongs in a museum.

The 2016 Republican presidential field has been mostly silent about the issue. South Carolina's own Sen. Lindsey Graham, who is running for president, has defended the flag as an integral "part of who we are."

A South Carolina state representative said he plans to sponsor legislation in the next session to take down the flag.



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/20/mitt-romney-confederate-flag_n_7627776.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

[mcar]

1. Broken clock etc.

Even Romney is occasionally right.

[Logical]

10. Give him credit when it is due. Not a popular stance in his GOP circle. nt

[daleanime]

20. Which he will only take now....

when he has no future in the GOP.


Still you are right.

[Kurska]

25. Romney is a twit, but if you read the article you'd see he was making such statements in 2008.

"The former Republican presidential nominee has long been opposed to the flag, saying in a 2008 debate that it "shouldn’t be flown" and "that’s not a flag I recognize."

Even a blind chicken occasionally finds corn and all, but still.

[merrily]

29. He also lied about having marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. and lied

about pulling over to the side of the road and crying when he heard the Mormon Church had lifted one of its bans on African Americans.

He tried to run to the left of Kennedy in 1994 for Senator of Massachusetts. When he ran for Governor or President--forgot which--an interviewer asked Kennedy if Romney hadn't claimed to be pro choice in 1994. Kennedy suppressed a smile as he said, "He was pro choice, he was anti choice, he was multiple choice."


Bottom line: I think Romney would say and do anything that he thought would most help him get elected President. I would not trust him as far as I could throw Rafalka

[Kurska]

35. I'm not defending Romney's character.

He is a political opportunist no doubt. I'm just saying in this instance the poster is inaccurate in saying that he only took this stance after he stopped running for office. It was in a televised debate, there really isn't any lying about that.

[merrily]

40. I didn't think you were defending him. I was only adding info about my former Governor.

[bvf]

32. So I've been told.

Full quotes (instead of excerpted phrases) from the debate would be most helpful.

[Kurska]

37. I can do you one better video inside

[bvf]

43. Thanks. See #42 for more... n/t.

[daleanime]

36. And that's why I give him some credit.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

41. Or a blind squirrel

You know the cliché.

[MFrohike]

2. Nice call, Mitt

It doesn't change the fact that he's hogwild about a war with Iran, but it's good to see that even he can get one right.

[BeyondGeography]

3. Take agreement where you can get it

I'll suffer from Romnesia on my next Mitt post, but I appreciate this.

[tarheelsunc]

4. I would say "broken clock"...

but I half expect him to turn around tomorrow and say he was misquoted or that his remarks were "completely wrong". Mitt Romney is an opportunist and I'm not sure if he really believes in anything.

[Logical]

11. Then why do all the other GOPers not say same thing?? nt

[hifiguy]

14. Mittens ain't running this time.

He can afford to alienate the knuckle-dragging fly-eaters, cave trolls and duck-fuckers that make up the Repuke primary electorate.

[onenote]

21. I'm no fan of Romney, but he argued for taking down the flag in 2008 when he was running

and it hurt him in the South Carolina primary.

[hifiguy]

23. He legitimately deserves credit for that.

Never thought I'd say that about Romney. Good for him.

[merrily]

30. Racism and dog whistles have been their "Southern Strategy" for some time.

[calimary]

5. Well how 'bout that.

On this, he's quite correct. That's what that obscenity IS. It's a hate rag. It's the Dixie Swastika.

[Gumboot]

18. Dixie swastika...

... is how we should always refer to this nasty butt-rag of a flag.





Many thanks to BartCop (we all miss ya, fella) for the graphic.

[calimary]

39. Welcome to DU, Gumboot!

Glad you're here! Terrific graphics! BartCop is missed, indeed.

Someone here mentioned Dixie Swastika a couple of days ago and I thought it was brilliant. I apologize for not remembering whose post I saw. But I'm happy to spread that fantastic meme! It needs to be framed this way. You'll note that, on Pox Noise and other "CON-Air" purveyors in particular, almost EVERYTHING now is excused and explained away with religion in one way or other. This massacre in Charleston just happened to occur at a church, but one targeted by the gunman because it was a black community church. For Pete's sake the kid even said so! A few times! Our adversaries hide behind and grossly exploit religion like I've never imagined in my life!

That's why we have to push back. We just HAVE to. We can't afford to let them be the only voices speaking in the room. We can't afford to let them monopolize the conversation. OUR side has to get heard. HAS TO.

Whoever posted here with the reference "Dixie Swastika" a couple of days ago (might have been early Thursday), please let me know! Cuz I'm gonna be using it a lot, to try to spread the framing, and I'd like to credit you. It's a GREAT meme. Clear as a bell. Two words. Simple as can be. Vivid. Leaves nothing to the imagination. It really punches the point home. In the nose.

[Duppers]

45. It was in this thread, calimary..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026865782#post2

I quoted "Dixie Swastikas" in another thread with a link to brewens

Yes, we all should use the term to show the kind of "respect" that racist flag deserves.

- with homage to the late, great BartCop.


And, in fact, all these confederate statutes to southern traitors should be torn down. I've had enough.

[calimary]

48. YES! It was credited to the late lamented BartCop, too, as I recall.

THANK YOU, Duppers! I think that's exactly where I saw it.

You, DUer brewens, and our treasured BartCop, may he rest in peace.

I need to remember to credit all three of you.

[Schema Thing]

6. Good for him.

[LiberalElite]

7. Finally something to applaud Mittens for

[JCMach1]

8. Thumbs up, Mitt...

[struggle4progress]

9. Good for Mr Romney

[Logical]

12. Good for him, takes some guts in that fucking party. nt

[4now]

13. I give him credit for taking a stand

on something that is not popular among Republicans in the South.

[Evergreen Emerald]

15. Who is he talking to--and who cares what he says?

Why is he still talking? Why is the media still quoting him?

[awoke_in_2003]

16. While I agree...

all I can say is "Fuck you, Lurch. Crawl back under your rock"

[JI7]

17. Good for him , more republicans need to speak out

[bvf]

19. Not impressed in the least.

He doesn't hold elected office, nor is he running for one, and at this point holds zero sway in the national discourse about race, or much else, for that matter.

Nobody cares what he has to say, and he knows it.

He's ventured out about two inches onto a very thick, sturdy limb in a desperate attempt at relevance.

Fuck him all the more for his cheap and transparent opportunism.

[onenote]

22. He took the same position in 2008 when he was running

I'm no fan of Romney's but your criticism -- that he's only saying this because he's not running for anything -- is historically incorrect.

[bvf]

27. Cite? Quote?

I'm willing to take a half-step back if you can provide words from his own mouth that he didn't subsequently walk back in the face of criticism from his party.

Seriously.

[onenote]

31. here you go

Romney first weighed in on the flag as a Republican presidential candidate in 2007, when he said "That's not a flag I recognize."

"That flag, frankly, is divisive, and it shouldn't be shown," he said during a debate sponsored by CNN.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/06/20/how-mitt-romneys-opposition-to-confederate-flag-just-put-the-current-gop-presidential-candidates-on-the-spot/

[bvf]

42. OK, thanks.

Rocking on my heels from the half-step back.

Given how he fared in the SC primaries subsequently, one wonders if he'd be so emphatic as a candidate this time around...

[JI7]

49. He lost many of the more conservative states to Gingrich and ssntorum

Coming in 3rd place.

[Hekate]

24. Good for him-- give credit where it's due

[Drunken Irishman]

26. Good for Romney. Under the bus he goes with the racist base of his party.

[Kalidurga]

28. Well he was governor of Massachusetts,

so he had to be right on some issues somewhere along the line. Even if he devolve into a Republican to get their nomination.

[A Simple Game]

33. No Lindsey that flag shouldn't be a "part of who we are." It should be a "part of who we used to be"

and you should be ashamed of "who you used to be".

Do you still believe in slavery?
Do you still believe that white people are better than black people?
Do you still believe blacks are only 3/5 of a man?
Do you still believe a slave owner can have non-consensual sex with his slaves and not have it called rape?
Do you still believe a slave owner can whip his slaves just because he feels like it?

So tell us Lindsey, who are you?

[Blue_In_AK]

34. I never took Mitt for a racist,

just an elitist, so it doesn't surprise me that he would say this.

[Warren DeMontague]

47. No. I never got the feeling that he was a profoundly mean or hateful guy.

Clueless, to be sure, and out of touch.

[ZX86]

38. Sorry....not impressed.

Have we become so jaded that common f*cking human decency gets rewarded? What's next? Kudos for coming out against child porn? The f*ck if I'm going to give praise for doing something any decent human being should be doing. "Hey Mitt, thanks for not having "Whites Only" sign on your office". Yeah...right.

[ecstatic]

44. lol. Good point

The bar is set extremely low for repubs, but it's still exciting when one of them actually does or says the right thing.

[Warren DeMontague]

46. He's right.

Of course.