Sunday letters: Politicians will pay for abandoning Confederate flag

An ancient book of wisdom tells us “As a dog returns to his vomit, a fool returns to his folly.” This is a perfect description of the misguided Republicans now demanding removal of the Confederate flag in the wake of a heinous murder in Charleston. Maybe they should talk with David Beasley before carrying this any further.

Just like Beasley, they sold out their political base in a quest for national office, or just to get an atta-boy from the more abominable media outlets. As unbelievable as it may have seemed to David Beasley in his day, in many parts of this state you still do not gain political support by denigrating the Confederate dead, as represented by their battle flag. These were brave and outnumbered men who fought a well-equipped invading army for years with almost nothing. The vast majority did not own slaves and were not politically sophisticated, but they were defending their homes and families.

All the good things these Republicans could have done for this state are put at risk. Each one now has one foot in the political grave and the other foot on a banana peel. For such spectacular moral blindness and plain stupidity, they deserve no less.

In a democracy, this issue above all others should be resolved by the people in a referendum, and not by a few preening politicians who will soon be in another line of work anyway.

Blythewood