I’ve taken a few trips to the east coast where I saw it more often, but it still seems to show up everywhere. People with the headbands, stickers on their cars, and license plate holders all bear the confederate flag more commonly in certain areas. What are these people trying to say? My understand is that the south wanted slavery, and the North didn’t. They’re not getting anyone to chain and shackle a bunch of people. What are they trying to say?
they’re trying to say “Damn the War of Nothern Aggression, we liked having slaves and those were great times which we consider the pinnacle of our heritage, and we are flying this flag in remembrance of not only our family members who fought and died in the War of Northern Aggression, but in remembrance of the happy times when them niggers were our slaves. Praise the lord, Amen.”
Yes it is shameful, tacky, and tasteless. But you asked a question, so there is your answer.
This will almost certainly end up in Great Debates or the BBQ Pit (which are pretty much indistinguishable these days 
), but the short answer is that the Confederate Flag is a symbol of Southern identity. For all practical purposes, this is akin to Irish Americans displaying the Irish flag or Mexican Americans displaying the Mexican flag. Of course, the Confederate flag also has alot of negative emotional baggage, which is where the trouble starts.
Well I have to disagree with Kalt. The war between the states (I can’t honestly call it the War of Northern Agression since the C.S.A. fired on Ft. Sumpter 1st) was fought over states rights vs. federal rights. Slavery was just a side issue but to the victor goes the spoils and a lot of people beleive it was about slavery.
So the answer to your OP is it is about State’s power over the Fed. It is a symbal of rebleion against the Fed and an expression of individual freedom. (to the poeple who fly it)
Hey, it’s a cool design. If it weren’t for the negative connotations, I bet it would have placed decently in the poll of “Best North American Flags” found in another threat.
Mmrk… Mmmrph… Nrgh… Not… in… Great… Debates…
To answer the original question, there are undoubtedly several reasons. Some people fly the Confederate Battle Flag because they are racists. Some people fly the CBF because they genuinely wish the Confederacy had won the war (and they may well wish that the C.S.A. had won the war because they are racists, or they may have–ah–unrealistic views about the Confederate cause, and wish the C.S.A. had won for other reasons). Many people fly the CBF because they wish to express pride in their “Southern heritage”, with “Southern heritage” meaning anything from “heritage of white supremacy” to “heritage of gracious manners, Protestant Christianity, soft accents, and giving people sweet tea unless they explicitly order unsweetened tea in writing, with a doctor’s note that they are diabetic.”
I’m guessing that is doesn’t express individual freedom for the people who were owned by the people who flew it.
Hmmm, seems you can’t call it the right name either. It’s called the Civil War. Growing up north and then going to High School in the south, I never could understand why you people called it the WBTS. (But I’m back up north now, so whatever) In my experience, the people who called it the war between the states also had a nice big confederate flag on the back of their Ford F-150 pickup.
[sub]And they normally went to that damn Texas A&M[/sub]
Maybe they’re Dukes of Hazzard fans. Gotta love that Daisy… 
I love the south, but the people who use the flag are rednecks. They’re the same people who go to NASCAR events.
If that last comment doesn’t get this sent to The BBQ Pit, then I don’t know what will.
k2dave said:
“The war between the states (I can’t honestly call it the War of Northern Agression since the C.S.A. fired on Ft. Sumpter 1st) was fought over states rights vs. federal rights. Slavery was just a side issue…”
I would disagree. If states rights were so important to the South then they wouldn’t have minded the new territories (Kansas, Nebraska etc.) being admitted as free states. After all, the citizens of those territories voted fairly to be admitted as free states.
While the northerners were willing to let the slave states keep their slaves, they were NOT willing to let new states be admitted as slave states AGAINST THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE.
So, I submit, the Civil War was almost enriely about slavery-- not state’s rights.
oh really. Putting civil war into dictionary.com gave:
civil war
n.
A war between factions or regions of the same country.
A state of hostility or conflict between elements within an organization: “The broadcaster is in the midst of a civil war that has brought it to the brink of a complete management overhaul” (Bill Powell).
Civil War The war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy from 1861 to 1865. Also called **War Between the States. **
Civil War The war in England between the Parliamentarians and the Royalists from 1642 to 1648.
So that issue is toast
As for
If the CSA was allowed to succede I have no doubt that slavery would have been outlawed by now. But that’s just my humble O
I have no doubt that some racist have corrupted the meaning and use the BSA battle flag as a symbol of slavery but equally racist people have corrupted history to read that the **War Between the States ** 
was about slavery.
*Please note how race sensitive the people who claim that it was about slavery are
Come on move this puppy to G. D.
Well, if it comes down to my all the 12 years of schooling that I’ve had plus the college experience OR dictionary.com (or any other dictionary)
I’m going to go with my teachers.
Having grown up in the south and recently made my own escape to Pennsylvania, let me add another reason for flying the Rebel flag.
Because they know it pisses off a lotta other people.
Pop quiz:
(Note that this is an open link test.)
1.) According to the “Cornerstone Speech” given by Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens in Savannah on March 12, 1861, the “cornerstone” of the new Confederate goverment was:
a. states’ rights
b. self-determination
c. slavery
d. really sweet iced tea
2.) The Declaration of the Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of the State of Misissippi from the Federal Union says that “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of _______”
a. liberty
b. cotton
c. college football
d. slavery
3.) The Declaration of the Causes which Impel the State of Texas to Secede from the Federal Union proclaims as an undeniable truth that:
a. all men are created equal
b. Texas has the right to secede
c. barbeque sauce should be hot and spicy
d. all white men are created equal, and black people should be slaves
4.) Article I, Section 9, Paragraph 4 of the Constitution of the Confederate States of America prohibits bills of attainder, ex post facto laws, and laws denying or impairing the right of _________.
a.) property
b.) contract
c.) armed revolution against the government
d.) property in negro slaves
5.) Article IV, Section 3, Paragraph 3 of the Confederate Constitution states that in any new territories acquired by the Confederacy the Territorial government must protect
a.) freedom of religion
b.) the institution of marriage
c.) the right to make moonshine
d.) the institution of negro slavery
6.) In the Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union, the South Carolinians complain that “[t]hose States have assumed the right of deciding upon the propriety of our domestic institutions…they have denounced as sinful the institution of _________”
a.) republicanism
b.) property qualifications for voting
c.) gay marriage
d.) slavery
7.) In addition to the Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union, South Carolina also produced a document called the Address of the people of South Carolina, assembled in Convention, to the people of the ________ States of the United States
a.) Freedom-loving
b.) Sovereign
c.) Southern
d.) Slaveholding
8.) In its declaration of secession, Georgia accuses Abraham Lincoln’s Republican Party of being an admitted _______ party
a.) socialist
b.) anti-democratic
c.) anti-slavery
d.) monarchist
9.) In 1859 Wisconsin passed a resolution against the federal fugitive slave laws based on the doctrine of
a.) the inalienable rights of man
b.) the laws of God supersede man-made laws
c.) the Fourteenth Amendment
d.) states’ rights
10.) When some of the Cherokee people who were forcibly relocated to what is now Oklahoma in the infamous “Trail of Tears” sided with the Confederacy, they produced the Declaration by the People of the Cherokee Nation of the Causes Which Have Impelled Them to Unite Their Fortunes With Those of the Confederate States of America, which complained that “[t]he war now raging is a war of Northern cupidity and fanaticism _________”
a.) against the rights of Indians
b.) for white supremacy
c.) for American imperialism
d.) against the institution of African servitude
11.) In a resolution printed by the Florida legislature before the war, a letter from the Governor to the Alabama Legislature, and the address of Louisiana’s commissioner to the Texas Secession Convention, Southerners refer to the Republicans as “____ Republicans”
a.) Red
b.) Blue-blood
c.) Silver-tongued
d.) Black
12.) Both the Georgia declaration of secession and a January 7, 1861, message from the Governor to the Tennessee Assembly accuse the Republican Party of promoting
a.) socialism
b.) polygamy
c.) higher taxes
d.) the equality of the black and white races
He’s saying you are both right. Calm-diddly down.
Well done, MEBuckner. State’s rights, my Aunt Alice.
Re: the OP, it’s not entirely clear to me why my father, a lifelong Pennsylvania resident and Civil War buff whose ancestors fought on the Union side, is a member of a conferate re-enactor’s group. Likewise, I’m not sure why, living in a town in which blacks make up more than 30% of the population, he would insist in driving around with a confederate flag licence plate, replete with the legend “Sho’nuff I’m a Rebel” mounted on the front of his car. Considering some of the statements I’ve heard him make about non-whites, I’m not sure I want to know, either.
What I do know is that one day I happened to borrow the car, and danged if that rebel flag plate didn’t fall off somewhere. Too bad.
Would that have happened before or after they were allowed to share our water fountains and sit anywhere on the bus they choose, in your humble O?
Oh, and let me just add: MEBuckner, you rock!
I’m going to have to agree with pesch here. I live in Kentucky, and the density of rebel flags here is much higher than what I observed in North Carolina or Virginia when I lived there. Now those of you who remember your eighth grade history lessons real well will immediately note that while N.C. and Va. were in the Confederacy, Ky. was not. So if these rednecks in Kentucky actually had any concern about their heritage, they would be flying American flags instead.