True Blue Conservative Says, 'Drop the Confederate Flag

It’s time for conservatives to stand up and say, “Enough is enough. I have no dog in this fight. Drop the Confederate flag.”

I’m a principled, true blue conservative. No one anywhere can question my conservative credentials. I’m so conservative, I spend half my time fighting the Republican leadership in Washington, D.C. I consider many of them traitors, cowards, idiots and sellouts. I am a Barry Goldwater/Ronald Reagan, rock-ribbed, Tea Party conservative. I am a conservative warrior, who never backs down from a fight.

[sharequote align="center"]But when it comes to the Confederate flag, I have no dog in this fight.[/sharequote]

But when it comes to the Confederate flag, I have no dog in this fight. I’m just a common sense American patriot. My loyalty is to America. My loyalty is to the stars and stripes. I don’t owe any loyalty to a battle flag of a Southern army that fought on the side of slavery over 150 years ago. That war wasn't on my watch. My grandparents didn't even arrive in America until the early 1900's.

This flag doesn’t matter to me, my business, my freedom, or my family. This flag doesn't matter to the modern day conservative cause. This flag doesn’t help defend capitalism - the thing that made America great. This flag doesn't save America's future. It doesn't make government smaller. It doesn't lower spending or taxes. It doesn't give more power back to the people. It doesn't uphold he U.S. Constitution. Actually to the contrary, it represented a different independent country and the Confederate Constitution.

No conservative should waste another minute on this fight. This isn't a hill to die on. Liberals and the media often cite the need for "compromise." Here's a bone to throw them. Conservatives need to rally around this one single request by liberals. This is our concession. This is our compromise. This isn’t an issue to make a stand. This isn’t an issue to draw a line in the sand.

What this is...is a distraction. A trap by liberals to forever define and destroy the GOP and the conservative movement. Don't fall fort it. Yes a flag is only a symbol. Southerners may think it's a symbol of history, or tradition, or States' Rights. But none of that matters. It is a symbol that most modern day Americans either don’t understand…don’t care about…or find offensive and repulsive. It is a symbol that detracts from the only mission of conservatives- defending and supporting America, American exceptionalism and capitalism.

Every day conservatives waste defending an old flag is a day either wasted…or a day more modern day Americans grow angry at the GOP. That flag is is a symbol of a losing battle. Not just the losing battle of the Confederacy, but the losing battle of today's GOP.

(Joe Raedle/Getty Images) 

Image (unfortunately) in today's modern world is everything. Right or wrong, to many Americans a Confederate flag symbolizes horrible images of hatred, racism and slavery. No matter if that is not the full story. No matter if brave Southern men died defending their land, individual rights and way of life. If the GOP defends that flag, the GOP is seen by millions of modern day Americans as a party that defends hatred, racism and human slavery. That flag represented the fight for a losing battle then...and anyone who wastes a minute defending it, fights a losing battle today. A battle for image in a modern day America.

Democrats are wrong. That flag didn't kill those nine innocent black churchgoers in Charleston. Neither did a gun. One mentally-ill madman committed the crime. One law-abiding churchgoer with a gun might have saved those nine precious lives and prevented this tragedy. Democrats who have politicized this tragedy should be ashamed. Flags don't kill people, criminals do. But in politics, truth doesn’t matter as much as image.

[sharequote align="center"]Flags don't kill people, criminals do. But in politics, truth doesn’t matter as much as image.[/sharequote]

A fight for an old meaningless image (like the Confederate flag) that rightly or wrongly, offends millions of Americans, risks damaging or destroying the important fight for our children's future. It's time to prioritize. This fight is over- whether you know it or not. Don't waste another second on it. Don't allow Obama and his socialist cabal to divide our country even further over a meaningless issue. Dropping the Confederate flag takes away Obama's ammunition. It let's the air out of his balloon. It empowers conservatives to fight the battle on our ground, on our issues.

One more point. This isn't a free speech issue. No one is saying individuals can't display the Confederate flag. Fly it at your home. Hang it in your den. Put it in on a bumper sticker on your car. You have that right. You have free speech. But the only flag that should be flown on government property is the American flag. Period.

It's time for all good conservatives to say "Drop that Confederate flag." Then let's get back to the only battle that matters- defending and saving America and our children's future.

–

TheBlaze contributor channel supports an open discourse on a range of views. The opinions expressed in this channel are solely those of each individual author.