It ain't MY flag, hoss.

My family (going up the patrilineal line, anyhow) has lived in the South since they arrived from England in 1700. My grandmother was a Stephens before she married my grandfather, and a descendant of Alexander Stephens, the Vice President of the Confederacy. I was born in Kentucky, where my father was in graduate school after growing up in Alabama, then moved to North Carolina when I was three, where I've lived ever since. I take a back seat to nobody in loving this part of the country. I love the landscape, the accents, the literature, the food, the music, the yes sirs and yes ma'ams, the churning blend of black, white, and Latino cultures, the fact that strangers look each other in the eye and smile when they pass on the street. I may live elsewhere some day, but I know I would come back here to die.

I say that only to flesh out my context with the Howard Dean Confederate flag flap. As to the remarks themselves, I doubt that Dean as a wealthy, patrician New Englander realized the minefield he was planting when he invoked that particular symbol. He could have put it behind him easily by just saying, "Look, it was a very poor choice of words, and what I meant was..." But his handling of it during the debate amounted to chugging tequila, putting on warpaint, and running pantsless through that minefield. It pissed me off, and don't think for a minute that Edwards' indignation was manufactured. I spent a decent chunk of my childhood living below the poverty line as a white Southerner and found being conflated with racists deeply and personally offensive.

You will hear some argue that the Confederate flag is a symbol of regional pride and heritage. Yes, but. Take almost any of Dr. Dean's flag-flying pick-up drivers, get them good and drunk, and ask them how they feel about blacks. Sure, sure, I know there are a few folks out there that display it simply out of pure contrariness and teenagers will do all manner of offensive things without any real underlying philosophical commitment, but it is a symbol of white power and everybody here knows it, whether or not they will say it in public. I'll believe it's about regional pride when I see Southern blacks flying it.

That flag does not represent the South; it represents a specific historical moment and social construct in the South, and a deeply shameful one at that. Southern heritage is about a hell of a lot more than a 140-year-old war or the following century of rear-guard defense of racist institutions. Alabama and Mississippi aside, the South is not lost to the Democratic Party or progressive politics in general, but the guys with the Stars and Bars in their trucks are. Permanently. And you don't want them back - they are diametrically opposed to the ideals of the Democratic Party.

I don't want my party's nominee to be the candidate for those guys. My party stood up for fairness and equality several decades ago and the Strom Thurmonds and Jesse Helms left for the other side. Good riddance to them all and their voters - I oppose their vision of society and would rather lose with my ideals intact if that's what it means. Their America is not the America I want to leave to my children. It isn't the South I want to leave to my children. There is a long and storied history of Southern progressivism and it involves standing up to those very people. The folks with American flags on their trucks (which outnumber Confederate flags a thousand to one down here) can be won back. Be their candidate.

That said, I hope the other campaigns let Dean put this issue behind him, because it is a distraction from the real issues at stake in the election. I'm glad that Dean apologized and I think it was absolutely necessary. I believe that he hadn't the faintest idea what he was walking into with the statement, and that is why he would have trouble in the South as the nominee. On some level, he just doesn't connect with me, and I'm the very sort of Southern voter with whom he should have the easiest time. It's a gut feeling that I can't back up with any polling data, but I'm just about certain that Dean would lose the independent vote all over the South, not on policy, but on personal style.