Bill Maher: Robert E. Lee gave up Confederate symbols, so why can’t ‘redneck flag-hags’? (Raw Story)

[inanna]

27 Jan 2015 at 11:07 ET

...

The U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether Texas is stifling free speech by refusing to issue license plates featuring the Confederate battle flag, but the host of HBO’s “Real Talk” doesn’t see the point.

“If you’re a white guy, living in Texas, driving a pickup truck with a shotgun rack and a ‘Nobama’ bumper sticker, isn’t the Confederate flag license plate a little redundant?” Maher wrote on his blog. “We get it. You’re a redneck. I don’t know how we’re going to find moderate rebels in Syria when you can’t even find a moderate rebel here in America.”

<snip>

Maher linked to a recent post on The Daily Beast that pointed out that Robert E. Lee, who commanded Confederate forces during the Civil War, swore an oath following his 1865 surrender to uphold the U.S. Constitution – and he urged other former Confederates to do the same.

<snip>

Now, some 150 years later, Maher wondered why some Southern sympathizers insisted on government-sanctioned displays of Confederate symbols.

“If the Confederacy’s most famous general had washed his hands of the Stars and Bars why can’t the rest of them?” he said.

Link: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/01/bill-maher-robert-e-lee-gave-up-confederate-symbols-so-why-cant-redneck-flag-hags/

I agree with Maher on some issues, and disagree with him on others. Here I think he is dead on accurate.

Here is The Daily Beast article Maher refers to:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/15/even-robert-e-lee-wanted-the-confederate-flag-gone.html

[Kelvin Mace]

1. I really don't see what Constitutional issue is at stake here

License plates are NOT a "right. The only reason for the SCOTUS to hear this case is because the racists on the court wish to affirm racism.

[Fred Sanders]

2. Does Bill think these few rednecks represent all white, rural America? Be consistent, Bill.

[1StrongBlackMan]

3. Bill is speaking about a specific sub-set of white, rural Americans ...

the one's living in Texas (he probably could have left that out, as the comment holds true any/everywhere), driving a pickup truck with a shotgun rack and a ‘Nobama’ bumper sticker,

[Fred Sanders]

4. Did not know there were specific sub-sets of "rednecks". Do they also come unarmed?

[1StrongBlackMan]

6. Read what I wrote. n/t

[inanna]

5. Yes. A loud and very vocal MINORITY. n/t

[guillaumeb]

7. southern heritage

I know an unreconstructed Southerner. Flies the flag of slavery. He talks about pride of heritage, a lost culture, etc. What he and most of these prideful southerners do not realize is that in most cases their ancestors, whom they like to think of as living in the big house on the plantation, were actually living one small step above the slaves in the same type of shacks and eating the same hominy and biscuits. The southern culture that they defend was the 1% living in wealth while everyone else, white, black, and red, were actual slaves or wage slaves.

[1StrongBlackMan]

8. Perhaps, they are pining for the days when ...

there was no question that they were one step above the Black folks, small or otherwise ... and when they were empowered to enforce/express their small step above, through violence directed at any Black that did not know/forgot his/her place.

Think that might be at the root of it.

In the (loosely adapted) words of Chris Rock: "There is nothing that pisses off a poor white person with a penny, more ... than the thought that there is any Black person out there with a nickel."

[guillaumeb]

9. try some understanding

Poor racist white folks have a right to be angry. First America had to kill all the Indians. That would make things better. It did not work. Poor white folk were still poor. Then, minimally informed white folks were told that black folks are/were the problem. Stealing our jobs, moving into our neighborhoods,etc. Then they were told that Mexicans were the problem, then Communist Chinese, then South Americans. Now it is crazy militant Arabs who REALLY hate us for our freedoms. What is a poor racist to do?

[1StrongBlackMan]

10. Are you serious? ...

Are you really asking me to "try and understand" the plight of the poor racist white folks?

[guillaumeb]

11. no

Yes and no. I hope we both understand that many people have no real idea of how the world works. The same people do not and will never understand that the 1% absolutely need the working class to be divided. Makes it easier for them to steal all the wealth and blame the "bad guys of the moment", whoever they are, for our problems. I am a retired Federal worker who belongs to a union. That makes me a greedy, gravy sucking freeloader on the American people, unlike real productive Americans like Mutt Romney and Jamie Dimon. My point is that, in no particular order, native inhabitants, blacks, Chinese, Arabs, Vietnamese, Mexicans, etc have all been cast as the bad guys who are the reason that the country has problems. Hope that clarifies. By the way, people who know me know that sarcasm is my default setting.

[1StrongBlackMan]

12. Not a problem ...

though from recent posts here (not by you) ... I had to check!

I agree that poor whites are easily convinced that "the other" is the source of all their pain ... blinding them to the real source.

[guillaumeb]

14. "Empowered to enforce"

A very nice way of expressing what linked all southern whites, rich and poor. The example of Haiti, where the slaves overthrew the masters, must have been ever in their minds. A free, black, self-governing republic only a short distance from the US.
Good to also keep in mind that the American police system arose directly from the slave patrols. All whites were required to participate, gun in hand. Does the American obsession with guns spring from the seeds of slavery, with the guns ever at hand to hold down the slaves?
As to the original post, did your American civil war ever really end, or did armed conflict become cultural conflict that still divides this country?

[appalachiablue]

13. R.E. Lee also didn't want to be hanged, for treason-the case with rebels, revolutionaries &

others worldwide. Geo. Washington, Thos. Jefferson & Ben Franklin are several from early US history who knew they would meet that fate if captured or defeated by the British. In June 1781, advancing British troops into Virginia caused TJ to flee his home Monticello on horseback. Because of his behavior he was questioned by American leaders and earned the title, "the coward of Carter's Mountain" for the wooded area where he hid. A brilliant scholar and polymath Thom was no soldier and knew it, although the matter bothered him for some time.