Jon Stewart: It’s weird we kept a symbol commemorating a pro-slavery secessionist army
The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart seems ecstatic that the Confederate flag is coming down in Southern states.
“The horrible attack in South Carolina seems to have caused a national reexamination of some of the more visible Southern symbols honoring that time that they fought, uh … us,” Stewart said. “It’s actually part of our new segment: ‘Huh, I guess it is pretty fucking weird that we fly a flag in honor of a pro-slavery secessionist army.’”
“Taking down the flag only 150 years after the South surrendered and 20 years after NASCAR did it,” Stewart added. “Congratulations!”
“It is becoming harder and harder to find public figures who aren’t suddenly on board with at least considering ditching this archaic symbol of racist insurrection. Harder, but not impossible.”
Stewart pointed to one Republican state senator who compared removing the flag to “a Stalinist purge.”
“Removing a flag would not really be Stalinist purge style,” Stewart countered. “Stalin, what would he do? He’d probably keep the flag, but whitewash it of its associations with slavery and secession, and then concoct some bizarre narrative about, ‘Actually, it just represents something lovable and positive — the kind of thing you just slap on a shirt or the back a truck.’ And then he’d say this dual meaning would justify not just keeping it, but elevating it, honoring it. Fortunately, Americans wouldn’t fall for such Stalinist…”
