GOP insiders expect no harm from Confederate flag controversy
Source: Politico
Early voting state Republicans overwhelmingly say the 2016 GOP field responded adequately – or better — to the issue of removing the Confederate flag from the South Carolina capitol.
By KYLE CHENEY 6/26/15
Republican insiders overwhelmingly say the GOP presidential candidates gave an adequate – or even strong — response on the issue of the Confederate flag this week, after its presence over the South Carolina state capitol became a symbol of America’s racial divide in the aftermath of last week’s shootings in Charleston. …
Despite a week’s worth of unfavorable headlines over the issue, the GOP insiders said the 2016 field struck the right notes after South Carolina GOP Gov. Nikki Haley and 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney called for removing the flag from the capitol grounds.
‘Governor Romney opened the gate last weekend for Republicans to do the right thing on the flag, and to their credit, the majority of the candidates followed his lead,’ said one New Hampshire Republican. ‘The Republicans like to talk a lot about expanding the party and reaching out to minority communities. This week, we took action on those words.’
Sixty-one percent of the Republican insiders surveyed called the collective message on the flag ‘adequate,’ and another 21 percent called it ‘strong.’ Democratic insiders had an opposite view: roughly two-thirds rated the GOP candidate responses as ‘weak’ or ‘disastrous.’ ‘What a bunch of babies,’ said a New Hampshire Democrat. ‘They couldn’t do the right thing until Haley gave them cover.’
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/gop-insiders-expect-no-harm-from-confederate-flag-controversy-119457.html
Has taking down the Confederate swastika become a “shield issue” for Republicans, generating much favorable publicity for their “tolerance” but not diminishing their substantive Dixiecrat stances on terrorist firearms and white supremacist politics? Are Republicans just abandoning one old “dog-whistle” in favor of other signals to their base that they still want to bring back the “good old days”?
WHAT’S YOUR OPINION?
Today’s media funeral coverage in Charleston presumably will feature many shots of the St. Andrew’s Cross flying high in front of the SC Capitol. Will Boehner, Scalise, McConnell, and other leaders in Congress get many favorable photo-ops they can use for months or years, because they “took a strong stand” on the shield issue of the flag?
Meanwhile, Republicans quietly this week suppressed a Democratic effort to allow the CDC to do mere research on the public health implications of current firearms policies, barred by law since 1996 (http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/gop-gun-violence-cdc-study-charleston-south-carolina-119384.html).
And the hushed silence of a funeral may allow GOP leaders, before they hurry to their limos, to any escape any real substantive questions about the white supremacist politics the Republican party has practiced since the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Will Steve Scalise, second in command in the House, be asked any questions about his appearance at a David Duke event in 2002, his vote against apologizing for slavery, or his stand against an MLK Day holiday in Louisiana? And will John Boehner be asked about his suppression of a 2009 report on white racist domestic terrorism by DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano? Suppression of that report may have forestalled action to prevent last Wednesday’s racist terrorist massacre (see http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141125660
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