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The
First Flag Referendum
After Roy
Barnes changed the state flag in 2001, the state’s leaders
confidently said the flag issue was over. During the 2002
political campaigns, Sonny Perdue said that he would let the
people decide in a referendum, then ran from the issue.
Everyone else, including Georgia Republican Party Chairman
Ralph Reed, said the flag was not an issue.
The flag
“non-issue”, however, helped defeat Roy Barnes. In 2003, new
elected Governor Perdue got the flag changed, and a referendum
of sorts to go with it. The referendum didn’t include the flag
everyone had expected to be a choice, but those in power said
the flag issue was over. No matter which flag the voters
chose, it wouldn’t be the 1956 flag. The Atlanta Chamber of
Commerce and Bush White House were particularly happy.
Late in
2003, three months before the March 2, 2004, referendum
between the Roy Barnes Flag and Sonny Perdue Flag, a small
cloud appeared on the horizon. A coalition of Southern Heritage
organizations started lobbying for the double referendum which
had passed the Democratic House in 2003 but had been stopped in
the Republican Senate. It would have let the voters choose
between the Sonny Perdue, Roy Barnes, and 1956 flag in the July
2004, General Primary. They called their proposal the Fair Flag
Act.
There was
no open indication those in power were the least bit concerned
by these malcontents. Representative Tyrone Brooks echoed the
position of official Georgia, when he said the flag issue was
closed and the legislature would not revisit it. There was no
surface indication the flag concerned anyone at the Capitol, and
Governor Perdue said he planned no campaign to support his flag
in the referendum.
Many
Senators and Representatives said they would sign the Fair Vote
Act and vote for the bill, but no one was willing to introduce
it.
There is a
story, as yet unproven, that when the Heritage Coalition raised
its populist head, the republican and democratic leadership in
the House, Senate, and Governor’s office took collective action
to make sure the Fair Flag Vote never even got introduced: they
quietly threatened any legislator who introduced The Fair Vote
Act with ostracism, and retribution in redistricting if
reapportionment came up in the 2004 session.
If the
story is true, it reveals the Democratic and Republican
leadership of Georgia were willing to take extreme measures to
prevent voters from getting to vote for the 1956 flag. It also
shows no matter how unconcerned they are in public, privately
they are panicked by the flag issue.
As the
March 2, referendum approached, word spread that if voters chose
the Roy Barnes flag instead of the Sonny Perdue flag the whole
flag issue would be reopened. The Atlanta Chamber of Commerce
and others spent several hundred thousand dollars in a mailout,
TV, and radio campaign urging voters to support the Perdue flag.
Like a
mantra, the media reported the half-truth that the Sonny
Perdue flag is based on the national flag of the Confederacy.
It’s based on a rejected provisional confederate flag,
not the national flag of the Confederate States of America. But
groups and individuals out to ban rebel heritage don’t value the
truth highly. Half-truths, misconceptions, and outright lies
are typical tactics in their efforts.
For the
most part, heritage groups urged voters to boycott the
referendum. The flag most people wanted to vote on wasn’t even
on the ballot. It was no real surprise the Perdue flag got the
most votes, and the despised and friendless Barnes flag was left
in the electoral dust.
Politicians who had looked worried for weeks at the capitol were
smiling and relaxed the next day, as if all their problems were
over. Sonny Perdue had a smile so wide it almost ran off his
round face. Since the referendum, we have all heard ad
nauseum the Perdue flag got almost seventy-five per cent of
the votes, and the Barnes flag just over one fourth.
Politicians and the media have unanimously announced the flag
fight is over. Again.
Well, not
exactly. Less than twenty percent of the voters went to the
polls—19.8 percent, in fact. They were loyal republicans and
democrats, true believers who typically toe the party line.
Both parties urged them to vote for the Perdue Flag, and several
hundred thousand dollars were spent on advertising to persuade
them. Most of them followed orders, and the Perdue flag got
almost three fourths of the votes. But this impressive sounding
percentage of votes amounted to fourteen and seven-tenths of
Georgia’s voters, that’s right, 14.7% of the voters.
None of
the smiling politicians at the capitol, no one in the media,
were willing to admit a fact they all know:
had the 1956 flag been on the ballot,
voter turnout would have been high and the 1956 flag would have
gotten more votes than either the Sonny Perdue flag or the Roy
Barnes flag. The 1956 flag was kept off the ballot by
ruthless, deceitful actions by Sonny Perdue and legislative
leaders, a conspiracy more dishonest than the Yazoo Frauds.
On March
3, a coalition of southern heritage groups held a press
conference at the capitol. Far from joining the
establishment’s “the flag fight is over” mantra, several
spokesmen pointed out the dismal percentage of voters
participating in the referendum and the small number of votes
the Perdue flag actually got. William Lathem, spokesman for
the Southern Heritage Political Action Committee, quoted
Winston Churchill after the Battle of Britain. “It is,
perhaps, the end of the beginning” of the effort to restore the
Real Georgia 1956 flag which was taken from the people.
The flag
will be taken to legislative campaigns this summer and fall, and
likely will be joined with other issues. The Atlanta Chamber of
Commerce has been deeply involved in the flag fight. After the
2003 legislative session, the chamber newsletter said the Perdue
flag referendum was its most important legislative victory,
because it “gave the public a vote on the flag” and at the same
time completely “removed the (Confederate) battle emblem.” The
Atlanta chamber and its political initiatives—and legislators
in rural and suburban Georgia who have supported those
initiatives-- will likely come under open criticism in
upcoming state House and Senate races.
CampaignGeorgia.org |
