Outrage vs. Tradition, Wrapped in a High-Flying Flag of Dixie

[struggle4progress]

By ALAN BLINDER and MANNY FERNANDEZ
JUNE 19, 2015

... “That symbol has to come down,” Cornell William Brooks, the national president of the N.A.A.C.P., said at a news conference here, calling it an emblem of hate. “That symbol must be removed from our state capital” ... “I think it’s a conversation that we’re going to have,” said State Senator Tom Davis, a Republican who represents Beaufort County in the Legislature. But he added: “Nothing is going to happen simply within the walls of that chamber without the people making their voice heard. There’s a sense in the institution itself that this issue was resolved” ... South Carolina law gives only the Legislature power to make changes to the Confederate battle flag display, and they must be approved by supermajorities in both the House and the Senate. After years of being thwarted, opponents of flying the Confederate battle flag said this time there may be enough public outcry and rage to compel legislative action ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/20/us/outrage-vs-tradition-wrapped-in-a-confederate-flag.html?_r=0

[merrily]

1. The legislature's hands are tied? Is the flag of slavery and sedition enshrined in the Constitution

of the first state to secede, the first to fire on the USA?

Craptastic.

[struggle4progress]

2. Oh, it's a big steaming load in the middle of the road. That "can't change me without two-thirds"

provision in the law is complete nonsense IMO: I don't think one legislative session can bind a later one in that manner

But when they turn to trying to change it, we'll likely hear such moaning and groaning, and whooping and hollering, and wailing and gnashing, that everybody will remember just what the old saying meant: SC is too small to be a republic and too large to be an insane asylum

[merrily]

3. That's why I asked if it were in the state constitution.

[struggle4progress]

4. I glanced over the Articles on the legislature and on miscellanies, and I found nothing allowing

the legislature to enact laws that no future legislature could repeal without a two-thirds vote, so I don't think it's sanctioned by the SC constitution

[merrily]

5. I meant is the Confederate flag specifically protected by the state Constitution?

[struggle4progress]

6. I doubt it

[merrily]

7. I don't have time right now to parse the article, but it was a compromise.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/19/us/south-carolina-confederate-flag-still-flies/index.html

[struggle4progress]

8. There was a growing boycott of SC, over the flag flying on the statehouse dome.

The compromise got the flag off the dome. The legislature said "only we can say where it flies" -- and they said it would fly nearby at the Confederate Soldier memorial. It's been long enough ago now that the "compromise" can probably be revisited