Following the mass shooting inside a black church in Charleston, South Carolina on Wednesday, one flag was conspicuously not lowered to half-mast in tribute to the nine lives lost in the deadly attack—the Confederate flag, which regularly flies on the grounds of the state capitol, despite countless calls for its removal because of its racist roots.
The rebel flag’s presence in Columbia was especially disturbing this week after images surfaced showing the suspected gunman’s embrace of the flag, which was on his license plates. (Dylann Roof also wore patches baring the flags of Apartheid-era South Africa and Rhodesia, the racist symbolism of which was evident.)
While other GOP politicians, including Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, are criticizing the flag’s enduring presence, Sen. Lindsey Graham, who hails from South Carolina and is now running for president, has come to the rebel flag’s defense. According to Graham, the Confederate flag is an integral “part of who we are.”
This isn’t exactly surprising, considering Graham appeared on “The View” yesterday to promote his new e-book and brushed aside the obvious racial overtones of the attacks, suggesting that suspected shooter Dylann Roof was seeking to massacre Christians. “This guy’s just whacked out,” he said. “It’s 2015—there are people who are looking for Christians to kill them.”
Although Graham acknowledged to CNN the flag has been used to push racist agendas in the past, he said “the problems we have in South Carolina and throughout the world” do not stem from symbols, but because of “what’s in people’s heart.”
“How do you go back and reconstruct America?” he asked hopelessly.
Actually, here’s one solution: remove the damn Confederate flag.
