Following the removal of Confederate Flag merchandise from WalMart [6]; Sears, Ebay, ETSY, and prominent flag maker Valley Forge Flags have all joined the 'movement' and stopped selling the 'controversial' flag. However, as with any and all government-'suggested' actions, there are unintended consequences in the hypocrisy of implicitly banning this symbolic banner... sales of Confederate Flags are soaring everywhere else [7] (as the "guns and ammo"-like threat of scarcity has led to a run on the products).
Alotta Signs of Sparks, Nev., typically sells about five Confederate flags per week. On Monday, however, 46 orders came in. Then South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley called for removing the stars and bars from her state's capitol grounds. The next morning, Alotta Signs logged 200 orders for Confederate flags, most of them through Amazon (AMZN). “We don’t even have the lowest price,” says Dave Pearson, owner and president of the company. “It’s nuts.”
The threat of scarcity often leads to a run on products -- such as guns, with sales typically spiking when there's talk of tightening regulations after mass shootings. And that appears to be the case for the Confederate flag, now under assault in the aftermath of the murder of nine worshippers at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston.
Many politicians who had defended the right of southern states to fly the flag changed their minds and said it should be relegated to museums. Walmart (WMT) and Sears (SHLD) said they would no longer sell Confederate flag merchandise.
But other retailers are benefiting from the controversy.
On Monday, before Haley announced her change in position on the flag (which still must be approved by the state assembly), Amazon listed two Confederate flags among the 60 bestselling items under “Outdoor Flags and Banners”: one at the No. 5 spot, and one at No. 43. The following morning, five of the top 20 bestsellers in the category were Confederate flags, including the No. 1 bestseller, a 3-by-5 foot polyester model made by Rhode Island Novelty and sold by a company called Anley. Among the top 60, 12 were versions of the Confederate flag.
Alotta’s flag, a 3-by-5 nylon embroidered model that sells for $13.95 plus $6.25 shipping (and is not eligible for Amazon’s free-shipping service, Prime) was the No. 7 bestseller as of midday Tuesday. So the sales spike for higher-ranking flags has probably been even greater than for Alotta’s product.
Sellers on eBay (EBAY) seem to be experiencing a similar surge in interest. At about 10 a.m. EST on Tuesday, a confederate flag listed by a seller named superqualityflags showed 149 sold in the last 24 hours. By 11 a.m., 201 had been sold in the last 24 hours.
EBay has since said it will prohibit sales of Confederate flags, joining Walmart and Sears. "We believe it has become a contemporary symbol of divisiveness and racism," the company said in a statement. Amazon didn't respond for this article.
Civil rights advocates may be disheartened by what appears to be a show of solidarity with Roof and other white supremacists, but southerners often point out that pride in the stars and bars has nothing to do with racism. Instead, for many, it signifies respect for the Confederate soldiers who fought for their homeland during the Civil War, including hundreds of thousands who perished.
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We leave it to The Burning Platform's Jim Quinn [8] to explain the hypocrisy of banning The Confederate Flag...
The Civil War was fought over State’s Rights! The Civil War was fought over Slavery! The Civil War was fought cus’ crackas was tryin’ to keep a brotha down! What a load of horseshit!
The Civil War was ignited politically because of the State’s Right to secede and the preservation of the institution of slavery . It is not a one versus the other debate. They were both the cause of the Civil War but that is not why the war was fought. The Civil War was fought because the North and the South were radically different. The old wounds never completely healed because the North and the South STILL have different cultures and economies.
As Americans we can all have a McDonald’s and Walmart in every town but different regions of the country will still see the world differently. The division of the North and South is still apparent in every election when half the country votes for the Blue team and the other half votes for the Red team.
As a Southerner I hold the Stars and Bars in the same high esteem as the Stars and Stripes. As a resident of Alabama I consider myself a current citizen of Alabama above being a citizen of the United States. As a native Texan I consider myself a citizen of the Lone Star State above being a current citizen of Alabama above being a citizen of the United States.
This is what State’s Rights means to me. Being a citizen of a individual State above being a citizen of the collective States. The United States was originally founded as a confederacy. A confederacy is defined as a collection of states for the common action of similar states.
It wasn’t until after the American Revolution the Articles of Confederation was replaced with the Constitution under a stronger influence of the Federal Government. This changed the country into a Federalist system while many Southern states from the Revolutionary War wanted to remain a Confederation.
The debate of the importance of the Federal Government is still ongoing and creating a new divide. By being a citizen of the United States I am automatically a participant in the Federalist system. The Federal Government rules over every State and the power is concentrated in the hands of 535 people. Considering the United States is inhabited by over 300,0000,000 citizens this concentration of power is going to create a new divide over the role of the Federal Government.
Except this time we doubt it is solely the Southern state who want to return to a confederacy and limit the role of the Federal Government.
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One final thought - it seems no one had any major problems with The Confederate Flag until some nutjob kills less people than die in Chicago every Friday night. Populist policy-setting by Lowest Common Denominator appears to be the nanny-state's new normal.
