Ban on the Confederate flag gains momentum, thanks to Indian American Gov. Nikki Haley

Obama praises Haley during eulogy for the Rev. Pinckney; what to say to defenders of the controversial flag

Gov. Nikki Haley's political stock has risen since she took a stand to remove the flag from state grounds.

“FOR TOO LONG we were blind to the pain that the Confederate flag stirred in too many of our citizens," said President Obama at the funeral for the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, one of the nine people killed by the gunman Dylann Roof.  "It’s true, a flag did not cause these murders. But as people from all walks of life, Republicans and Democrats now acknowledge — including Gov. Haley, whose recent eloquence on the subject is worthy of praise — we all have to acknowledge the flag has always represented more than just ancestral pride."

South Carolina's Gov. Nikki Haley's politics is not - to put it mildly - my cup of tea. If I was a resident of South Carolina I most likely would not vote for her. So, I find myself in the uncomfortable position of agreeing with her when she came to the belated realization that the Confederate flag is too divisive and needed to come down from in front of the state capitol after a Confederate flag-loving loony shot and killed nine members of a black church. And I find myself siding with her when she is being attacked for being an Indian American.

When Haley announced her change of position on the flag last Monday, she knew she would be drawing the wrath of many of her constituents, who still think the pre-Civil War South was a land of gentility and charm and "old times there are not forgotten."

“I’d really like to like Nikki Haley since she is a Republican, but on the other hand, she’s an immigrant and does not understand America’s history,” conservative firebrand Ann Coulter told the host of a Fox TV show.

RELATED: Time to bring down the Confederate flag

Ann Coulter

Haley's parents are Indian Sikhs who came to the United States before she was born in Bamberg, S.C. Yup! She's American through-and-through; educated in South Carolina schools where they teach southern history like the Gospel.

Coulter continued to show her ignorance: “Anyone who knows the first thing about military history knows that there is no greater army that ever took the field than the Confederate Army.”

Does Coulter know who won the war? What history is she studying?

Here is what the Vice President of Confederacy said was the cornerstone of the secessionist government."Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition," Vice President of the Confederacy Alexander H. Stephens said. "This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical and moral truth."

That pretty clearly states what the Confederacy - and that darn flag - is all about. The South Carolina legislature still must vote on the issue of the flag's removal from state grounds. Two-thirds of the lawmakers must approve that action before it can be taken down.

“For many - black and white - that flag was a reminder of systemic oppression and racial subjugation,"  Obama said in his moving eulogy for the Pinckney. "We see that now removing the flag from this state’s Capitol would not be an act of political correctness, it would not be an insult to the valor of Confederate soldiers, it would simply be an acknowledgment that the cause for which they fought, the cause of slavery, was wrong.

'For many - black and white - that flag was a reminder of systemic oppression and racial subjugation.'

- President Barack Obama

It's ridiculous that 150 years later and the Civil War is still being fought. The flag has become a litmus test of sorts for the Republican candidates for president as they are being forced to take a position, one way or the other. It's a lose-lose proposition. Side with the flag and you lose what's left of the moderates in the GOP. Vote against the flag and you lose the radical right that has become the base of the conservative party.

Amazon, eBay, Walmart and other chain stores said they would stop selling Confederate paraphernalia, including the flag. It is not against the law to display or own the southern banner, Haley only wants it removed from state grounds as if the state sanctions what it represents. People can still have their Constitutional right of freedom of expression by displaying it on their bumpers, t-shirts and wherever they want.

The popular use of the pro-slavery symbol, the Confederate flag, speaks to the current state of  racial inequality in America, particularly. We - as a nation - cannot fully move forward until it rids itself of pro-slavery symbols disguised as historical artifacts and the ideology it represents.

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What would you tell all those folks who believe that the flag is simply a historic symbol of the South's heritage and pride? On the Nightly Show, actor Joe Morgan issues a perfect retort in his monologue as "Papa" Pope, the character he plays on the television series Scandal.