I consider the first sentence of this post to be a false premise. I do think the Confederate dead should be honored, and I think the Confederate flag has no business flying over a government building.
As far as I'm concerned, the Confederate memorials at, say, Gettysburg National Park are completely justified. You should be allowed to put the Confederate flag on your car, if you so desire. You should be allowed to wear a confederate flag bikini.
Actually, that's conflating the issue a bit. You can (note: "can." Not saying "should") wear a confederate flag bikini for the same reason that you can wear a Che Guevara t-shirt; ain't no prohibition on "hate speech." (Note: I am not calling either a Confederate flag bikini or a Che t-shirt hate speech here.) Freedom of expression. Huzzah.
As for the war memorials and statues, that's not really freedom of expression, but they should still exist. Because yeah, it is a chunk of our history.
But it doesn't belong on government buildings.
See, I'm assuming that government officials swear an oath to uphold the laws of the United States. The Confederate (battle) flag was flown by men who defiled that oath. Lee and Jackson and a bunch of other Confederate officers were commissioned US military officers. They broke their oaths and fought against the US military. That's not the sort of behavior we want our elected representatives to encourage or endorse, right?
You want to fly a rebel flag? Try this one.
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