Should The Conferdate Flag Be Banned Entirely?

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I doubt it would do any good, even if ALL the gangs in Baltimore, East L.A, Chicago, and NYC, COMBINED, adopted it as their colors----certainly not A street gang.

If that idea would work, then Blacks taking-back the word n!gger would've worked----and, it DIDN'T because they still allow it to "sting", when used by a cracker. To me, this is like kids on a school playground----someone calls someone else "four eyes", and the four-eyed shows that it hurts, so the taunt is continued; when the person lets it roll-off them, it DOESN'T. I've never known a white person who was hurt by the term "honky", or "cracker"----most of 'em *I* know, LAUGHS when they hear the term! (Obviously, I couldn't possibly know ALL white people----and, maybe it HAS hurt one / some----but.....)

why would this proverbial street gang adopt a flag that symbolizes racist intent?

Indeed. I voted "No," but not "because it is a symbol of Southern pride." Ban something (like alcohol, drugs, firearms and equal marriage), and watch how fast it becomes more desirable than it otherwise would have. We have had several presidencies in the last century who have tried their best to ban liberty. We see where that has taken us; this nation is, once again, neck deep with liberty-minded advocates who would die before giving in to collectivism.

To subvert it, of course.

uh ok, never mind that they'd be mocked by anyone with a brain

I'm not american, so I might not be sufficiently informed, but wouldn't banning something that's already called the "rebel flag" just add to the appeal of displaying it for those already inclined to do so? Fueling the "underdog" sentiment?

I believe it should be taken down from SC state house. And it looks like Gov Haley is working on that.

I did not vote on this because I don't like the idea of banning items, even symbols like the CSA battle flag or the more commonly flown naval jack.

I recognize it as a symbol that has been used from southern pride to KKK/other racist groups to states rights. I do know there are groups who recognize southern pride apart from racism but this isn't the common or first thought when most people see a stars and bars. I don't think of southern pride myself when I see it and here I am in SC having lived in the south for a decent part of my life.

What I do know is there are people who get very intense about this symbol. Good people and bad people.

It's been off the SC State House for over 15 years. It would be difficult to remove the thing from where it is now due to the fact that it's right next to the Confederate Soldiers Monument.

Exactly, and they'd also piss off the Confederate Restorationsists as well.

Of course not, its a free country and you can rep whatever flag you want besides those black ones with the scribbly lines on it

Some folks might take issue with the Confederate flag but the Confederacy only existed for a few years whereas the United States has been around since 1776, don't you think some people are offended by the American flag? There is a lot more blood on the flag, a lot more people were oppressed under that flag, we commit crimes today under that flag, so to turn around and say the Confederate flag is evil and should be banned is just silly because then probably almost every flag in the world should be banned as well.

The confederate battle flag that we recognize today was just one of many flags flown by confederate states, and there were many variations on the theme.

It was not that big of a deal for southerners, arguably, until it was adopted by the dixiecrats in 1948.

Georgia added it to it's state flag in 1958 in complete coincidence to the civil rights movement, and removed it again in 2001.

I, frankly, don't know why they want to sanctify an image that is a bold reminder of when they sent millions of boys to die and would have starved to death without boiled peanuts because they couldn't stand the thought of not being allowed to own another person.

The south buggared itself right up the backside and lost badly, and has never recovered.

And they want to live in the past?

As I understand it, the Confederate flag had not be flown in southern state capitols till the advent of federal civil rights enforcement, and so actually owes it's display more to racist reactionaries than to southern pride. That alone is reason enough to take it down.
And to say that flying the flag is a point of pride to southerners is disingenuous, as it hardly represents black southerners, or the descendants of those southern whites who had sided with the Union and fought against the Confederacy.

Nah*

But if there's contention, that's what referendums are for. Let the people of that state decide. Democracy.

*It's hypocritical to fly the Stars and Stripes if you're worried about the mistreatment of an ethnic group

While I'm not comparing flying the Confederate flag to desegregation, but the matter of civil rights couldn't realistically be left up to the states, any more than gay marriage in most cases can (with the apparent exception of Washington state, which legalized marriage equality by popular vote). Sometimes, the people can't do the right thing, especially when negative emotion is involved.

No for 3 reasons:
Heritage
History
I have freedom of speech under the 1st Amendment of the Constitution

Also what is a "conferdate"?

We live in a democratic republic, where the people and their representatives are beholden to a constitution. It is the highest law of the land, and a guiding charter for the principles we use, as we make or remove more laws.

Allowing people to override the constitution and vote for something like this is a breach of fundamental values established by the first members of congress. The most famous discussion on this issue is the Hamilton-Jefferson Debates, publicly available for anyone to read in the Annals of Congress. Probably the most famous statement by Hamilton, the most influential member of the Federalists, to Jefferson, the most influential member of the Statists (aka the Democratic-Republicans), was: "Sir, your masses, they are asses." This is the same group of people that gave us our bill of rights, and the two primary principles behind the bill of rights is protection against "the tyranny of the minority" and "the tyranny of the majority".

The right to free speech, and demonstration, absolutely protects the display of this flag and unless you believe we should amend the constitution itself, the wrongness of such a vote couldn't possibly be more plain. That people even entertain such an idea displays their ignorance of the constitution. This is to be expected given the senseless obfuscation of the constitution and the statesmen today who habitually endeavor to skirt it.

Such behavior simply wouldn't be possible if people not only basically knew the constitution, but also it's formative discussions. Our representatives can get away with what they do en masse, because they interpret the constitution loosely and suggest that we have no way of knowing how the founding fathers considered those same words. That is a flat, disingenuous lie because they were a vary verbose and expressive group of people who had monumental debates in congress, the kind of debates that look like Plato or Sextus Empiricus in comparison with the finger-painting that politicians come up with today.