Huckabee Embraces Confederate Flag To Woo White Evangelicals

Columbia, S. Car. -- The populist campaign of Mike Huckabee, seeking to mobilize an insurgency of white evangelicals against the Republican establishment, took an abrupt turn today after the former Arkansas governor directly appealed to voters on the issue of race, summoning his fellow candidates to stop calling for the removal of the Confederate flag from government offices.

"You don't like people from outside the state coming in and telling you what to do with your flag. ... If somebody came to Arkansas and told us what to do with our flag, we'd tell them what to do with the pole. That's what we'd do," he declared to applause at a campaign rally in Myrtle Beach Thursday.

At the same time, an Atlanta, Georgia, based organization, Americans for the Preservation of American Culture, began running radio ads attacking John McCain for his opposition to displays of the Confederate flag on public buildings and praising Huckabee.

"McCain has been doing it -- calling the flag a racist symbol -- for years," the announcer declares. "After McCain, Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee stands as a breath of fresh air. Governor Huckabee understands that all the average guy with a Confederate flag on his pickup truck is saying is, he's proud to be a Southerner." The ad concludes: "In South Carolina, we're proud to be Southerners."

The addition of a powerful, racially-freighted issue into the Republican primary contest appears designed to enlarge the constituency of voters supporting Huckabee, expanding the circle of white conservative Christians to include descendants of George W. Wallace's campaigns in the 1960s and 1970s - a constituency that has shown the potential to become influential in southern elections, as David Duke demonstrated by nearly winning the governorship of Louisiana in 1991.

The emergence of the confederate flag as an issue -- if past elections are a guide - holds the possibility of inflicting damage on McCain.

When McCain ran in South Carolina in 2000 against George W. Bush, he, like Huckabee now, said the confederate flag issue is a matter of states' rights -- a laden term in these parts -- and should not fall under federal jurisdiction. Later in 2000, after losing the nomination, McCain renounced his states' rights position, acknowledging, "I chose to compromise my principles. I broke my promise to always tell the truth.... The Confederacy was "on the wrong side of American history. That, my friends, is how I personally feel about the Confederate battle flag. That is the honest answer I never gave to a fair question."

Debates over flying the Confederate flag above southern statehouses and other government buildings have been bitter and intense in recent years across the states of the former Confederacy, including here in South Carolina. Opposition to flying the Confederate flag has resulted in defeats for both Democrats and Republicans.

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Huckabee, ironically, has been campaigning throughout the state accompanied by former Republican Governor David Beasley, a conservative white evangelical who lost a 1998 bid for re-election after he called for the removal of the flag from the South Carolina statehouse. During that campaign, cars across the state displayed a bumper sticker declaring "Keep the flag, dump Beasley!"

In next-door Georgia, former Democratic Governor Roy Barnes, who had appeared to be unbeatable with high popularity ratings, lost a 2002 bid for re-election after replacing the state flag, which prominently featured the Confederate battle emblem, with a flag that reduced the flag emblem to a barely visible icon. Sonny Purdue, Barnes' successful Republican opponent, issued campaign brochures declaring, "Remember who changed your flag."

Furman political scientist James Guth said he was initially surprised Huckabee played the Confederate flag card, noting that it was out of character for his campaign. Guth said he believes Huckabee did so to try to stop Fred Thompson from making further gains here. Thompson remains far behind, but he has picked up roughly 7 or 8 points in recent weeks, and almost all the points Thompson acquired have been at Huckabee's expense, polls show.

The result of these trends is that in less than two weeks, Huckabee has dropped from first to second, with John McCain at the top of the polls.

Ron Wilson, past commander of the South Carolina Sons of the Confederacy, said he organized the fundraising to pay for the anti-McCain, pro-Huckabee radio ads. He said that the ads will run on every station that carries Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly, plus all drive-time shows throughout the state.

Comments

[ajax2]

Huckabee the man is pure Republican. I love him.

[BeefJerky]

"... If somebody came to Arkansas and told us what to do with our flag, we'd tell them what to do with the pole. That's what we'd do."

Is that what Jesus would do, pastor? I knew Jesus, Mike... You're no Jesus.

[edresearcher]

If evangelical Christianity is such a wonderful and divine religion from God, then why do many of its supporters actively promote racism and hatred of others? This is 2008 -- isn't it time for this country to grow up and get beyond the issue of race?

[trinity]

Maybe Huckabee is banking on another Civil War so he can become President for Life of the "new and improved" CSA?

[ChezMJ]

OMG! I can't BELIEVE Huckabee would find flying the Confererate flag to be acceptable! Going for the white racist vote, eh, Huck??? And this guy is a so called MINISTER???

[TLV]

How about a little fly in the ointment. The Conch Republic proudly flies its flag. Does anyone really care? No...because it doesn't represent atrocities done to human beings in the name of the almighty dollar as slavery did.

[oneofsixbillion]

How is the Confederate Flag different than the Swastika??? Its pretty obvious they both represent a core value of hate and racism. Huckabee is a maniacal snake oil salesman. Dont let him fool you...he's evil.

[hmmmmmer]

I don't see anyone flying the Nazi flag over the capitols, I don't see anyone flying the British flag, and they shouldn't fly the confederate flag.
The civil war is over and if the south weren't so full of crap when it comes to it things would be a lot better. All I know is the south had better not be deciding the election for the rest of the nation.

[oneofsixbillion]

Flying the Confederate Flag would be like a white man of German descent displaying the SWASTIKa and saying,
"I display the SWASTIKA because I'm proud to be a German." The Confederate Flag is as racist and dangerous a symbol as the swastika. Its not up for debate as far as I'm concerned

[TLV]

Last year, a couple of very racists white boys in our town broke into the high school and spray-painted the confederate flag on the walls. They were weighing in on some controversy that had erupted over an article in the school newspaper in which the writer felt the black students were not entitled to their own area near the cafeteria in which to gather. By the way, the black students had gathered in the approximately the same place when I attended the school so it had been going on for a long, long time and generally caused no problems.

I guess the two boys consider the flag a representation of THEIR racist views and that's why they used it. Many of us who live in the North or elsewhere see it that way, too, due to the history of its use. If it means something else to others, I apologize.

[helonias]

HUCKABEE EMBRACES THE CONFEDERATE FLAG

But would Jesus Huck?

[VOTER]

"HUCKABEE EMBRACES THE CONFEDERATE FLAG......."

While the State of South Carolina Tourism Board anticipates vast numbers of cancelled vacation reservations to the state.

[StillAmused]

The Confederate flag is an artifact of American history. Historical artifacts belong in museums.

Huckabee belongs in an outpatient program.

[sparkandy]

Regardless of how much it irritates some people, that flag is a part of the history of certain parts of the country. This was Indian Territory during the Civil War, and most of the Indians fought for the Confederacy, along with the few whites, like my father's family, who also lived in IT. The flag used to fly at the Capitol, until the PC people convinced the State to remove it. However, it's still a part of our history, just as it is in Alabama, and Georgia, and South Carolina. Whether you hate or love that flag, it's still a part of history. And anyone who thinks the North fought to free slaves and that poor dirt farmers like my father's family fought to preserve slavery for the rich, needs to quit watching so much TV and read a book. And that goes for anyone who thinks the attachment to the Stars and Bars is solely racist.

[BoBoPupkin]

Oh come on now. Didn't you all once as kids play Civil War and and proudly hoot and holler while wavin that Reb Flag.