Wrong Symbol, Right Idea

Dean still holds a strong hand

This is a pretty decent analysis of the fallout from Dean's Confederate remark. To reiterate here what's been going on in a comment brush fire for a few days now, I don't think Dean was right to use that symbol to represent the voters that he, rightly, hopes to bring into his column for 2004. As he said, he doesn't understand why white Southern voters who make less than $25,000 a year "keep voting Republican against their own economic interests."

It's unfortunate that he made the remark, but even more unfortunate that he could make it and people would know exactly what he meant. The reason why this remains an issue is that the Republicans have been flying the rebel flag for years to sucker these very same poor white Southerners into "sticking with their own color" come Election Day. When people are done casting stones at Dean, and he wins the nomination anyway, I hope they'll pick up some bigger rocks to throw at the GOP's cynical strategy and the people behind it.