''We're still fighting the Civil War here"

[Blue_Tires]

Virginia, a former slave state and Republican stronghold, could help secure the presidency for Barack Obama if thousands of unregistered and disenfranchised black voters can be mobilised.

It is lunchtime in Petersburg and Alice McAlexander and David Nibert are on the prowl. The two Obama campaign staffers have come to the campus of Virginia State University, a historically black college that is still overwhelmingly African-American. Armed with clipboards, they fan out across the scrub lawns between the red-brick halls. “Are you registered to vote in Virginia?” shouts Nibert, clad in flip-flops and a red Obama T-shirt. The VSU students, in mottled hoodies and low-slung denim, look on curiously, but by the end of an hour-long blitz the two operatives have helped a clutch of teenagers negotiate the mauve text of the Virginia voter registration application form. “I’m excited about voting,” says one of their conquests, Davina Pitts, an 18-year-old psychology student.

The Commonwealth of Virginia, lodged above the Carolinas on America's Atlantic coast, has not voted for a Demo cratic presidential candidate since Lyndon B Johnson in 1964. (Historically, the "Solid South" of the United States was a blue stronghold, but when the Democrats announced their support for the civil rights movement in the 1960s the former Confederate states switched allegiance.) As recently as the 2004 presidential election, John Kerry wound down his Virginia campaign in August, reckoning that the state was forfeit to the Republicans.

http://www.newstatesman.com/north-america/2008/10/virginia-state-vote-obama

[doc03]

1. The Republican's argument about displaying

the Stars and Bars claim the Civil War had nothing to do with race, it was all about State's Rights. :sarcasm:

[WeDidIt]

2. I've not heard of anybody anywhere arguing to display the "Stars and Bars"

I've heard the St. Andrew's Cross flag (Battle Flag of the confederacy), but NEVER the "Stars and Bars".

BTW, here's a picture of the "Stars and Bars" (Official flag of the confederacy):

[doc03]

4. Where you been that's what I have always heard the

flag of the CS called? Ask any redneck that's what they call it.

[Kukesa]

6. What you're referring to is called The Southern Cross. n/t

[Kukesa]

5. As a student of the Civil War, I thank you for this post. n/t

[doc03]

8. Here you go from Wikipedia

scroll down to The Confederate Flag and read the last line. It has been called the Rebel or Dixie flag and (often) incorrectly called the Stars and Bars. So you are correct about the Stars and Bars and I am correct because it says it is (often) incorrectly called the Stars and Bars. You said you have never heard anyone call it the Stars and Bars there is proof often people do. I have heard many right wingers Rush Limbaugh for one call it that. That's why I called it the Stars and Bars because I have heard it many times before and that is actually what I thought it was called. Besides that it has nothing to do with the point of my post about the southerners claiming the Civil War was about State's Rights and had nothing to do with race.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_the_Confederate_States_of_America

[WeDidIt]

9. I've never heard ANYBODY calling for the flying of the "Stars and Bars"

I've heard many people who dislike the confederate battle flag call it the "Stars and Bars", but I've never heard anybody who was talking about flying the Confdederate Battle Flag call it the "Stars and Bars". Those people, at least, know what is the Stars and Bars and what is the St. Andrew's Cross, or Confederate Battle Flag.

[doc03]

10. Well I have many times. What's your point anyway

just to be an ass or impress me with your knowledge. Congratulations you are the first person to go on ignore.

[WeDidIt]

11. That you ignorantly reeferred to one thing as another

I was educating you.

Maybe if you were educated people would take you seriously.

[kick-ass-bob]

16. oh - I missed this nice piece of 're-education'

we're sorry that people refer to the flag in a way that you deem 'incorrect' but the fact remains that they indeed DO refer to the battle flag that way.

We now bow to your almighty wisdom that we should be so gracious to have received.

Thank you, may I have another?


And if you really need it:
:sarcasm:

[doc03]

17. Here's further proof southerners refer to the

confederate battle flag as the Stars and Bars.
http://www.starsandbarsmotorcyclegroup.com/

[kick-ass-bob]

12. The confederate battle flag is called 'stars and bars' all the time.

I hear it called ONLY that whenever it is talked about here in NC.

Right or wrong, it doesn't matter. That's what they mean.

[doc03]

13. Thank you, that's all I was trying to say

I have heard it referred to as the Stars and Bars hundreds of times. I believe I have heard some country music songs use that term. That's why I was under the false impression that was what it was called. I admitted I was wrong and referred to a Wikipedia link that said it was often mistakenly called the Stars and Bars. The other poster refuses to acknowledge that and says they never ever heard that before even after I show proof it is is done often. The other poster just wants to be argumentative I guess since that wasn't the point of my post in the first place.

[LostinVA]

3. Lots of VA is either quite blue or quite purple

Charlotteville, Richmond city, parts of the VA Beach/Hampton Roads corridor, NOVA.

[Orsino]

7. The reason the fight's still going on is that white privilege is still alive and well.

Or the sense of entitlement is, at any rate, and the dismay that the government no longer defends it so strongly.

[olkaz]

14. The entire south still thinks that the Civil War hasn't been won, and it will be decided by...

College football.

It's hilarious. Go ahead and flame me, SEC fans.

[doc03]

15. You're right that's why after the Civil Rights

legislation the south became the Solid South. That's why there are so many racists in the Republican party they defected to the Republicans because of the civil rights issue. People like Rush Limbaugh like to say all the time the Democrats are the racists because so many voted against the Civil Rights Legislation. They always fail to mention they then defected to the Republican party. I lived in the south for several years and served in the Army with southerners and many are still fighting the Civil War.