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Why
do Virginia Democrats act surprised when former Gov.
L. Douglas Wilder, a fellow Democrat, publicly tears
into one of their own? He has been openly
criticizing members of his party for decades.
Wilder’s
latest attack targeted a Democratic congressional
candidate, Ben “Cooter” Jones of “Dukes of
Hazard” fame. It seems Jones has used as a
campaign prop an automobile featured in the old
television series. That tactic offends Wilder
because a Confederate flag is displayed on the
automobile. By Wilder’s reckoning, any use of
a Confederate symbol is “of great concern to the
broad body of responsible Virginians” because it
sends a racist message.
Ironically,
on the day of Wilder’s attack, a federal appeals
court in Richmond decided on a 6-5 vote not to
reconsider an earlier decision of a three-judge
panel of the same court, which struck down a
Virginia statute barring state license tags
displaying a Confederate flag. The two events
dramatize once again the double standard some apply
to the display of Confederate symbols, the division
among Democrats over how to deal with the flag, and
the futility of demanding that people stop
expressing themselves about matters of deep concern
to them.
Symbols
can have power beyond reason. There is
something about the Stars and Bars that evokes
especially powerful responses, both positive and
negative. It’s as if the most polarizing,
terrible and costly conflict in American history is
still engaged.
Adding
further irony is the fact that Ken Burn’s series
on the Civil War began yet another airing on Virginia
public television stations shortly after the
Wilder-Jones flap arose. Whatever prompted that
war, it’s obvious that Virginians have not
resolved the emotions involved and the issues
surrounding the conflict.
It’s
doubtful that Wilder’s demand will do anything but
stir passions on both sides. When so much
emotion is involved, it is naïve to assume that
passions will be lowered by ignoring the issue that
triggers such a response or, worse, by suppressing
the use of a symbol that has so much power. Far
better to encourage honest expression and
appropriate use of the symbol.
What
we should all fear is the degradation of free speech
protections by those insistent on using the courts
and government in general to ban particular
expressions or public displays thought to be
“insensitive” or “offensive.” Is there any
justification for denying First Amendment protection
to the display of the Confederate flag while
guaranteeing such protection to all other symbols? Of
course not.
The
use of symbols in political campaigns is a related
issue. Is it wrong for a candidate to introduce an
issue that provokes controversy? The answer is an
emphatic “no.” Controversy is what politics is
all about. If there were no controversies or
differences among the people, there would be no need
for campaigns and elections. The political arena is
the very place where such matters should be aired.
Despite
Wilder’s implicit suggestion that Ben Jones is a
racist or a cynical candidate appealing to the
racist sentiment of certain voters, the 7th District
Democrat is a decent man who is proud of his
Southern heritage. It will be a sad day indeed
when a candidate — or any citizen, for that matter
— cannot express particular views and sentiments
merely because others have concluded for reasons of
their own that those expressions are
“offensive.”
-- Sept. 30,
2002
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