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If two wrongs don’t make a right, try three
Michael Swickard
It is wrong that we cannot talk New Mexico history without modern politics getting in the way.
The Confederate Flag controversy in Las Cruces last week is captured perfectly by Laurence Peter: “If two wrongs don’t make a right, try three.”
The controversy started because of an Independence Day parade float by the Las Cruces TEA Party. It had the Confederate Flag among 21 other flags that have flown over New Mexico. The flag was displayed among the other flags but not prominently. Regardless, it jumps out at you.
The TEA Party theme was: What flags have flown over New Mexico in its history? While that was not the centerpiece theme of the parade, the Centennial of our state’s founding, it was good enough New Mexico history that the judges awarded the TEA Party float the grand prize including a thousand dollars.
It seems a political operative who was a TEA Party opponent realized that if this issue was falsified and twisted it could put the TEA Party in a bad light. So this operative protested that the Confederate Flag on the TEA Party float was the only flag flown, and you know what that means, wink wink nod nod. Not true but the political operative chortled at the chaos created.
The three wrongs
Let us look at the three wrongs in this story.
The TEA Party was wrong to put the Confederate Flag on their float for reasons outside of New Mexico history. The TEA Party showed they were naïve in that they should have known their political opponents would lie and cheat. They cannot look surprised that the progressives, whom they fight every day politically, would seize upon this issue and distort it as they did. This brings us to the second wrong in this story.
A couple of days after the parade Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima decided that he would be outraged. He wrote, “The Las Cruces Tea Party can believe whatever it wants, but to have this symbol and what it represents, ** highlight** (my emphasis) the winning float at a celebration of our nation’s independence is an outrage.” In another post he said, “By displaying the flag of an occupying military force, the Tea Party featured a flag which not only **represents its political orientation,** (my emphasis) but also symbolizes racial inequality and divisiveness in a state well known for its diversity.”
Two lies by the mayor. It was not the highlight of the float and it certainly does not represent the TEA Party political orientation. Is the mayor that stupid? Or is he that evil to ascribe those thoughts for the purpose of making a political gain for himself? At best he made an indecent exposure of his own soul.
The TEA Party included the flag because they used, “A Cuarto Centennial History of New Mexico” by Robert Torrez as their source authority. Again, someone in their organization should have stopped them because their opponents would lie about it.
Finally, there is a mischaracterization of New Mexico history. Both sides missed the story of the California Column coming to New Mexico to throw the Confederates out. More so, there was the largest Civil War battle in the West in New Mexico. One of my favorite New Mexico history books is, “Rebels on the Rio Grande: The Civil War Journal of A.B. Peticolas,” by Don Alberts. When I drive on Interstate 25 between Las Cruces and Albuquerque I visualize the thousands of combatants fighting the Civil War here in New Mexico.
Salt-of-the-Earth people
It is wrong that we cannot talk New Mexico history without modern politics getting in the way. The mayor of Las Cruces, Ken Miyagishima, has thrown down the gauntlet that the Las Cruces TEA Party is a racist organization resembling the KKK. He is wrong and is playing politics. I believe he has “Jumped the Shark” as they say in Hollywood. His time in the mayor’s chair should be over because he is using the office of mayor for his own political aspirations and, in doing so, hurting his own constituents.
I am not a TEA Party member but have spoken to their organization once at a well-attended meeting. The group I spoke to was mostly salt-of-the-Earth people, veterans and business leaders.
It is a final wrong to see them otherwise.
Swickard is co-host of the radio talk show News New Mexico, which airs from 6 to 9 a.m. Monday through Friday on a number of New Mexico radio stations and through streaming. His e-mail address is michael@swickard.com.
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I think justifying the teaching of hatred boarders on a form of terrorism. Teaching hate severely damages an individual and society. The only association to being “right” belongs to the context of “right” being republican. In other words it is not a civil right nor is it morally right.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajetKfdN3ho
Mr. Holmes, thank you for being more accurate than me. Maybe the reason the TEA Party float didn’t have a proper Confederate flag was because they didn’t have access to one, just as they didn’t have access to any Spanish, Texan, or Mexican flags. But they _did_ somehow have access to a Confederate battle flag. Which is understandable, most people have one of those, just laying around the garage.
Anyway, pointing out that the LCTP doesn’t know history is like shooting fish in a barrel, but apparently I’m supposed to be more annoyed that the Mayor didn’t see the float and thus couldn’t properly talk about it?
This is NOT the first time they have brought our a confederate flag. While its funny to try a have a sign showing this flag on a float directly above another sign that says “change again in 2012″, and than call that a “history lesson”, what do you call it when one of fine people Swickard is sticking up for shows at a rally waving a confederal flag in front of Harry Teagues office two years ago protesting Obama’s health plan. Here is the picture:
The only thing the Tea Party here wants us to to understand is that we have an African American President, and they dont like it. In fact they probably are making even worse connotations but Ill leave that to your imaginations.
Spare us the bs spin Swikcard and Tea Party about this being a history lesson, both incidents clearly reveal the Tea Party’s true ideology and intentions behind your confederate flag.
Incidentally, artiofab, the phrase “Stars and Bars” – as differentiated from the “Stars and Stripes” – actually properly refers to the three-stripe Confederate National Flag and not the St. Andrews Cross of the Confederate battle flag, which was flown by far more than just the units of the Army of Tennessee, but by almost every Confederate combat unit from mid-1862 on specifically because the Stars and Bars looked far too similar to the US Flag on a battlefield. As for the Confederate Navy (such as it was), they did not incorporate the St. Andrew’s Cross into either their flag or their jack until 1863 – after the war in New Mexico was essentially over. It is also worth noting that with the exception of small raiding parties of limited success, the only Confederate units to truly invade our soil did so early in the war, and it is doubtful that they flew the crossed battle flag but instead the earlier national flag and – more ominously to some – the flag of Texas (which the Tea Party also seems to have omitted from the float in question – a culturally- and historically-wise omission). Certainly no unit of Sibley’s New Mexico campaign of February to March 1862 had that particular flag.
It is also worth noting that the photo artiofab has provided further demonstrates the historical ineptitude of the Las Cruces Tea Party; among the flags that they claim flew over New Mexico is the flag of the state of Arizona; while it is worth noting that during the Civil War there was an attempt (political, not military) by the Confederacy to claim half of the then-New Mexico Territory as the Confederate Territory of Arizona (splitting the territory in half north-south rather than east-west as Congress would do barely a year later), not only was there never any true control over the territory in question, but there was no flag for the proposed Arizona Territory. Furthermore, if there had been, it certainly would not have been the flag of the modern state of Arizona, which was designed in 1910, nearly half-a-century after the current borders were drawn.
The TEA Party theme was: What flags have flown over New Mexico in its history?
Where are good pictures of the float? Since from this photo, I don’t see a flag that flew over New Mexico. I see the Confederate battle flag of the Army of Tennessee and some other Confederate armies (or the Confederate naval flag), the “stars and bars” that have become part of Neo-Confederate ideology but were not what the CSA flew during its brief attempt at being a nation.
I mean, for what it’s worth, the float also has a ‘Don’t tread on me’ flag, which I don’t think too many Spanish were flying in the 1770-1780s, so the float is obviously representing a fictional version of the history of New Mexico.
PS the good news is that Neo-Confederates are also angry at the mayor of Las Cruces. Good news for the New Mexico tourism industry?
On the Las Cruces Tea Party website is a photo of Al Sharpton with a black choir in the background. It is under the tab “News”. The wording under the photo of Mr.Sharpton and the black choir reads “In our Midst! These Vermin Need to be checked at the door!” Here is the link http://www.lcteaparty.org/news.htm
Anyone with even the slightest, passing familiarity with hate speech and the demagoguery used against groups in history will recognize it in this context. An entire body of work is available on the use of the terms “vermin” and “rat” by the hate-mongers of the Nationalists or Brown Shirts in Germany against the Jews. The film “The Eternal Jew” is yet another documentation of the use of these vile terms against a group targeted by an extremist group. The use of this term, “vermin”, by the Tea Party is filthy in every connotation. It demonstrates not only a deliberate attempt to dehumanize a particular segment of our society, (to make them easier to hate) but it presents to the world the true, ugly and dangerous face of this group called the Tea Party. They deserve to be watched very closely. Any group that employs such clear intent needs to be carefully watched as they sow their ugly and hateful poison under the banner of patriotism. We have seen this before. The attempts to excuse such behavior under the protection of “free speech” or “history” should be met with disdain and those who choose to align themselves with such behavior and messages of hate as Mr. Swickard seems to leaning toward should be promptly identified as standing with that ilk. Any time a group or individual employs a term like “vermin” or “rat” in describing another human being who they may disagree with politically they lose all credibility and have placed themselves and their fellow travelers in the company of history’s most ugly and repugnant souls.
Bernie Digman
Once again Mr. “Pile it Higher and Deeper”, you have piled it higher and deeper. Read what you write because it makes me laugh and makes me angry most of the time. Everyone has their individual slant on history. As a northener, whose ancestors came here to the USA in the very late 1800′s or early 1900′s, my family has no history here during the civil war. What I have studied makes me despise the Confederate flag. Yes, it is historical but not in the best of taste at a 4th of July parade. As for the float winning a prize, I question the intelligence of the people on the awarding group.
On a similar note, while what is now New Mexico was ruled by Spain for over two centuries, we were ruled by the Confederacy for… actually, we never officially were; The Confederacy’s invasion of New Mexico was a complete failure (not to mention strategically idiotic), and therefore the only time the Confederate flag flew over New Mexico was specifically as a belligerent invader. Never mind its modern status as a symbol of racism or even its real status as a symbol of the greatest act of treason in American history; flying the flag of an invading power over our soil is a direct affront to all New Mexicans, and I have several ancestors who gladly fought against that act. Carrying it in a parade within the borders of this state is tantamount to marching through the streets of Philadelphia with a Union Jack and a burning effigy of President Washington.
This isn’t the bias of modern politics, Dr. Swickard; you appear wholly ignorant of the political biases of the past four hundred years.
Incidentally, Dr. J, were you perhaps intending to direct most of your ire at Spain? Mexico only officially ruled this region for about a quarter-century, and they completely ignored us for that entire period.
Enough with the revisionist history. Here are some facts.
1. The Civil War and the tension leading up to it was, in fact, about Slavery. Just read the speeches made in Congress.
2. The White Supremacists aligned with the Slavery interests kept New Mexico from becoming a State before the Civil War and even up until 1912. After the Civil War, this same mind set kept New Mexico from becoming a State because of dislike of and distrust of Indians, Mexicans, and Catholics. Again, just read the speeches made in Congress.
3. These same White Supremacists had Arizona wait to be given Statehood until its entry date corresponded with the anniversary of it have been declared a Territory of the Confederacy.
4. The Confederate Flag is part of the iconography of these same folks.
I do not pretend to know whether or not all Las Cruces Tea Party members are White Supremacists, but if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it’s probably a duck.
Before writing this note, I visited the LC Tea Party web page http://www.lcteaparty.org/ and what did I find? An Alert Link to one and only one urgent Alert which was a Birther Petition called, Complaint To Prevent Another un-Constitutional Term of Office For the “Imposter-In-Chief”
Does that sound like a quack?
Michael J. Flynn, Graduate of Mississippi State, past resident of Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida.
Yes, this was designed to show New Mexico history, so obviously it omitted the Mexican flag and the Spanish flag.
The Tea Party claims that it could not find a Spanish flag or Mexican flag (or that one was shredded by the wind) but strangely enough had no problems finding the flag of a rebellious part of the country that fought to keep human beings enslaved.
Good points and excellent insights Dr. Swickard. History is history however. You should not be able to pick and choose which flags that have flown over NM were “good” and which flags were “bad”, and should be expunged from history. Franky, since my ancestors originally came to NM in the Confederate calvary for the battles, and later settled here and made substantial contributions to the state, I would find it the ultimate of PC BS to exclude that episode of our history. I would be much more ashamed of the Mexican flag and what that represented (as I am also part Native American) in our history, and the political corruption culture we still retain from those days because of it. But that flag should also be shown, it is our history as well.
Mr. Swickard, once again, attempts to explain away why factions like “Tea Baggers” aren’t extremists, but good old patriots hanging on to the Constitution. The Tea Party has well been polled as leaning strongly as a racist movement.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/blogs/the-gaggle/2010/04/09/new-poll-finds-tea-partiers-have-more-racist-attitudes.html
Is Mr. Swickard a Tea Party member or just sympathic to their beliefs and values?
Here is one of Mr. Swickard’s Tea Party buddies actually waving the same racist Confederate flag in an anti-federal government protest.
http://networkedblogs.com/2PuHV
Here is a YouTube video on the Tea Party and the Confederate flag. It is a much better analysis than that of Mr. Swickard. It is called “A Good Way to Ruin a Parade”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-5xti-T5nw
Mr. “PHD” Swickard’s defense of the indefensible is a travesty.
The Las Cruces Tea Party insensitively displayed a racist Confederate battle flag on its float at the El Paso Electric Light Parade in Las Cruces for the Fourth of July! The unthinking judges gave it a best of show award. This is just plain dumb. This treasonous battle flag had everything to do with breaking up the United States of America and slavery. It became a symbol of white supremacy! The Tea Party should take a history lesson on the Civil War and slavery. Don’t they realize the Ku Klux Klan and other racist hate groups used it?
The Tea Party has even used this flag in its anti-Federal government protests. However, they don’t mention that fact!
The Las Cruces Tea Party should be repulsed by the fact that it has the support of a few white supremacist groups for its display of the Confederate flag.
If you go the to the Las Cruce Tea Party website you will see this group of Confederate flag wavers have re-written history. The American Civil War is all about “States’ Rights and of economics.” Slavery was not important or that relevant. Read this utter nonsense of the Tea Party.
http://www.lcteaparty.org/
Here is the nonsense they promulgate: “It is a proven, historical fact that it has been liberals like our mayor, who did and who continue tho keep the American black population in chains. This was as true in the 19th century as it is today in the 21st. It is the liberals who continue to race-bait at every opportunity to prevent full racial integration. It is the liberals who convince blacks and other minorities to accept the chains of entitlement rather than the wings of enterprise. It is the liberals who use minorities to gain votes in elections and then fleece the treasury and the economy and never use any of their ill-gotten gains to improve the lot of those whom they profess to care about. ” This is so untrue!
There is only one wrong!! No more excuses – the President of this misguided and ill-informed Tea Party group should immediately apologize to our community for the inappropriate display of the Confederate battle flag. By the way this battle flag was never used in the New Mexico territory during the Civil War despite Tea party claims!
Ben Franklin best described the deceptions of Mr. Swickard, PHD and his Tea Party buddies: “Half a truth is often a great lie.”