I'm not an outsider, Robert. I was born and raised in the South. So were my parents, and my grandparents spent most of their adult lives here. But in Florida, being a Cracker has more to do with complexion and accent than it does with residence, or even birth. I know these people intimately, and in their eyes, I will always be an outsider. And I will always be proud and thankful to be one.

Its a bit early to celebrate. The long-overdue trashing of racist iconography is a small price to pay for carrying on the real mission, which is to enrage and mobilize the residual racist constituency to support the economic agenda of the Conservative Bund and its extreme right wing. This may look like a victory against bigotry, but it is purely symbolic; its more of a disciplined but orderly retreat to a second-line defensive position.

The real purpose of racial division is no longer historical prejudice, but to keep salaries low by dividing the work force (pitting poor whites against blacks in a race to the bottom for salaries) and unifying the knuckle-draggers under one banner so they will vote consistently and reliably against their own interests. That banner may have been trampled underfoot to cover this latest strategic withdrawal, but nothing of real significance has been surrendered along with it. The objectives remain the same, divide and conquer the work force to keep salaries down and unemployment (and profits!) up, and indoctrinate the Bubbas into blaming their declining standard of living on blacks, Mexicans, immigrants, foreigners...and Liberals--anyone except the Job Creators. The leadership of the Right is not motivated by racism, they could care less about skin color. The real issue here is economic class and how it can be preserved by appealing to its very victims to collaborate in their own exploitation.

I'm old enough to remember when the "Confederate battle flag" was not a popular symbol of Southern resistance. Oh sure, we had all seen pictures of it in school textbooks, along with all the pseudo-historical smokescreens laid down to cover up the obscenity of slavery (States Rights, economic rivalry between the Industrial North and Agricultural South, small government, local control, yadda yadda). But the flag started showing up big time when the Civil Rights movement started picking up steam, and when it became clear that the times they were a-changin' in the South. The battle colors of the Army of Northern Virginia became co-opted as the symbol of the Klan, Jim Crow, the White Citizen's Councils, and the rest of the political infrastructure erected to keep the South segregated. So much for Pride, History, Heritage, Tradition and the rest of that sanctimonious smegma. When that battle was lost, those battalions were issued new uniforms and shifted to a new front to fight for a new cause. There was even a name for it: Nixon's Southern Strategy.

The Confederate flag will not disappear. It will lose State support and historical legitimacy, but it will be marketed privately in mass quantities, appearing on everything from beer mugs to tattoos. There's a name for that, too: merchandising.