Three Confederate flags lead county GOP float in Iowa

[rurallib]

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2015/07/06/iowa-conferate-flag-gop-float/29799705/

As South Carolina's state Senate voted Monday to remove a Confederate flag on its Statehouse grounds, Iowa Republicans grappled with their own controversy around the flag and the debate it has fueled for its associations with slavery.

Three Confederate flags flew from a truck pulling a Marion County Republicans' parade float in Independence Day parades in Pleasantville and Pella on Saturday, leading to harsh criticism from the party's state chairman and resignation of two Marion County central committee members who owned the truck.

The flags flew in parades occurring less than three weeks after the shooting deaths of nine black people at a Charleston, S.C., church. The white gunman charged with the slayings had posed for pictures with the flag, and police say the killings were racially motivated. The tragedy has thrust the Confederate flag — a symbol of Southern heritage to some and racism to others — into the national spotlight.

Pleasantville Republican Owen Golay, who owns the truck with his wife, Linda Golay, told The Des Moines Register that he counts both Union and Confederate soldiers among his ancestors. He said he hoisted the three flags above his truck to make a statement: Confederate soldiers are veterans, too.
Much more at link

Comment: I find it hard to believe that the county chair or someone else in the county party didn't tell them to take a hike or pull the flags. Never should have gotten that far. It has been condemned by the state party, but what the hell were they thinking???

[CanonRay]

1. I could be wrong on this,

but I believe Iowa was a Union state. This proves that this stupid flag represents nothing but white supremacy. There is no Iowa Confederate Heritage.

[Frustratedlady]

2. My great-grandfather was a captain in the Union Army from Iowa.

He might have been referring to a relative from the South, not from Iowa. Perhaps right over the border in Missouri?

I guess we do have white supremacist groups in Iowa, but it would surprise me that they were in the Pella area.

Lame excuse for an Iowa parade.

[slumcamper]

5. OH MY!

We certainly do have white supremacist communities in Iowa, and the Pella area is one of the most virulent right-wing "cells" in Iowa. The area around Sioux Center in NW Iowa is similarly a beleaguered bastion of social backwardness which flaunts its rigid and extreme social conservatism, aptly exemplified in the persona of Rep. Steve King. At the risk of being pilloried here, there seems to be something about the Dutch heritage, religion, and culture that fosters the outlook of people like these paraders or people like Bob Vander Plaats. Of course, this generalization doesn't apply to all who live in those communities (and power to the people who fight the racist and bigoted currents of life in such places). Never the less, it is not surpising to me that displays of this type and other such manifestations of social hatred would find their origins there.

And that's all I have to say about that.

[Frustratedlady]

6. That shocks me. I've been to Pella many times and never suspected anything like that.

Vander Platts was the first indication to me of activist activity in that area, but I just thought of him as some kind of nut. My grandson attended college in Pella and never mentioned any indication of supremacists.

As for the NW or SW sections, I have heard of groups in the past and King certainly brings the bigotry to the surface, as does Ernst. I think they are more into code to protect their precious positions, but I can feel the hate and disgust in their writings. And, of course, the NE has Dubuque.

I guess I want to believe we don't have much activity in Iowa. It's frightening enough to know we have any.

[47of74]

19. What about Dubuque?

Yeah I know we have an idiot population here in Dubuque that is loud, obnoxious, sexist, and racist.

But Dubuque has been pretty solidly Democratic for quite a long time now. The NE Iowa district had been Democratic for eight years prior to 2014 thank in large part to Dubuque, the Quad Cities, and Waterloo. The Iowa Secretary of State has online records going back to 1996. In 1996 and every Presidential election since Dubuque County has gone for Democratic Presidential Candidates. I think a large part of that is because of Dubuque being there. If Dubuque wasn't there I think the county would've gone more Republican since once you get outside the city it's still fairly rural.

[cynzke]

24. I can see them now.....

Signs that say....Welcome To (fill in the blank), A Beleaguered Bastion of Social Backwardness! Perfect for some towns or states! LOL.

[heaven05]

25. the dutch were

HUGE slavers during the heyday and 'Middle Passage' genocide contributors. Read about that one. Nothing untruthful about your statement.

[Nitram]

10. An excellent article in the WP pointed out that the South won "the war of monuments and textbooks"

Many Northerners identify with the message of the Confederate flag , as well as the phoney romanticized history it is supposed to represent. For example, 90,000 Kentuckians fought for the United States in the Civil War, while 35,000 fought for the Confederate States. Nevertheless, according to historian Thomas Clark, the state now has 72 Confederate monuments and only two Union ones. And textbook publishers are afraid to lose customers in the South if they don't stress "states' rights" and "economics" as reasons for the "War Between the States."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/07/01/why-do-people-believe-myths-about-the-confederacy-because-our-textbooks-and-monuments-are-wrong/

[HenryWallace]

11. This is certainly not about Heritage!

Sad, a century ago this area was a bastion of progressivism and tolerance.

Fifty years earlier, Iowans volunteered for service in the Civil War in a higher percentage than any other state, North or South.

There is an ominous darkness enveloping the State: West to East….

[heaven05]

26. "ominous darkness enveloping the State"

and the country, north, south, east and west. It's called RW racism disguised as a political party.

[47of74]

20. Iowa did have some copperheads

But Iowa remained loyal to the Union the entire time. There were some "Democratic" copperheads running around here in Iowa - especially in Dubuque - who would today be total teabaggers.

Iowa had the largest percentage of men of any state - Union or Confederate - go off to fight in the war.

[stage left]

23. I absolutely agree.

Iowa has no Southern Heritage to defend. Flying the Confederate battle there can have only one meaning.

[GeorgeGist]

3. Racists overwhelmingly vote Republican.

[Missn-Hitch]

4. Any other sightings out there?

There was one in a parade I attended...in Idaho. Hahaha.

[Mister Ed]

7. So they're apparently declaring that their allegiance is not to the USA,

...but to a defeated enemy of the USA. A display of treasonous sentiment like this - on Independence Day! - should make any patriot's blood boil.

[Grins]

8. Mr. Lincoln must be so proud of his party today.... N/M

[Botany]

9. "Confederate soldiers are veterans, too."

Yes, they were veterans who fought to end the United States of America
and for the right to keep human beings as slaves.

[maindawg]

12. Its the official flag of the KKK

That is the point.

[roody]

13. My widowed father married a widow from Humeston, IA.

Her father was in the KKK. She was selling his KKK outfit on Craig'slist 15 years ago. She was born around 1922.

[blackspade]

14. Oh, this shit again...

"He said he hoisted the three flags above his truck to make a statement: Confederate soldiers are veterans, too."

They are indeed veterans; veterans of the Confederacy, a bunch of traitors who went to war for the purposes of keeping people of color enslaved.
They deserve no honor or accolades.

[timdog44]

15. I am German

that means I have to count Nazis in my heritage. Can I fly the swastika over my truck. They were veterans. Problem is, they were not American veterans. Neither were the confederates. They were traitors and so not Americans. Please do not take this as a generalization, but it is a case of a bunch of stupid ass southerners voting against their interests. They were duped. Northern stupid asses can be duped too. They also vote against their interests. Stupid is the common denominator. 2x/stupid +3x/stupid = 4x/stupid?!! What a minute. Oh well, I go along with that.

[awoke_in_2003]

18. Thank you...

I should have skimmed the replies first.

[Dont call me Shirley]

16. Message from GOP Headquarters: Fellow GOPers no longer allowed to flaunt racist sentiments,

There's an election coming up and Jeb needs that Hispanic/Latino vote!

Hence the Donald fiasco: Let's make Jeb look like the non-racist.

[awoke_in_2003]

17. Yes, but they are not American veterens...

they are CSA veterans. They chose to secede, so they shouldn't be allowed to be called American veterans.

[valerief]

21. Fuckin' cretins. nt

[Jack-o-Lantern]

22. +1000

[cilla4progress]

27. Republicans obviously

party of racists.