During the aftermath of the horrific events surrounding last Saturday’s “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., many in the national press and political circles demanded repeatedly that President Donald Trump denounce hateful groups and speech at the event.
This came after one of the marchers allegedly turned his Dodge Charger into a weapon, plowing through the crowd of counter protesters, killing one and injuring 19.
While many obsessed over Trump’s ambiguity in denouncing the violence and hate, something was happening at the state level that doesn’t need to fly under the radar.
In the past, Mississippi GOP leaders have been hesitant to call for the change of the Mississippi state flag, which features the Confederate battle flag, a symbol that is now more widely used among white supremacists across the country.
It could be said that these politicians fear voter backlash when it comes to changing the flag, but after events like Charlottesville and the mass shooting of an African American church in Charlotte, N.C. in 2015, Mississippi’s leadership has been noticeably softening on its position.
Politicians like Senators Roger Wicker and Thad Cochran have called for the flag to be changed, as well as Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn, who first called for a more unifying flag in 2015.
Perhaps these politicians see the writing on the wall in terms of the winds of change. After all, more municipalities are removing the flag, as well as Confederate statues each year, and violence like we saw in Virginia last weekend has only emboldened city leaders across the South who are bent on removing the statues.
And then there’s the chance that these leaders understand that the symbol, no matter what historical significance it might have carried for good and honorable Americans who see it as a reminder of history, has been coopted by a sinister movement bent on white hegemony, and little else. For a politician, this is not a base that is to be coveted.
No matter the reason, Mississippi leadership like that of the Mississippi Economic Council, which told the Clarion Ledger this week the organization remains in favor of changing the flag, see that this emblem on the banner of the state flag is not just divisive but bad for business overall.
Changing the flag is not going to be an easy task, because in spite of the little momentum gained with the GOP in recent years, the legislative and executive branches of state government, along with our federal representatives, have yet to get on the same page about the issue.
The governor continues to cite the fact that Mississippians voted on the flag over a decade ago, and that if the citizens of this state wish to revisit this issue through referendum, he would support the movement.
The only problem is that this issue is one that is divided along racial lines. While there are whites in Mississippi who are in favor of changing the flag, they still represent a minority, and the result of any direct vote on the issue would likely come out to around a 60-40 vote in favor of keeping the current flag.
That is very close to the state’s white-black population demographic isn’t it?
So while it may seem conservative to shout “the people have spoken,” this issue reeks of a concept the Founding Fathers called “Despotism of the Majority.”
Conservatives like myself hold to the fact that America is not a democracy, but rather a republic, which means that we are not governed by mob rule.
There are times, and I dare say this is one, when the result of direct democracy has a despotic effect on a single group in favor of another, and in those cases, the checks and balances of government must be enforced.
The legislative and executive branches in Mississippi’s government need to lead on this issue.
Each year, these two branches offer hundreds of millions of dollars in financial incentives to companies wishing to relocate here. Much of this at cost to the taxpayers, and much of this is done without the direct consent of the taxpayers.
If this is an acceptable practice for the governor, in the names of bringing jobs to the state, certainly he must see room to lead from the front on the issue of the state flag and bring a more unifying message for the state.
