BIGOTED IDEALS ARE UNAMERICAN
As a percentage of its population, Iowa sent more troops to fight in the Civil War than any other state. Iowans fought on the side of the Union against the Confederate South. Abraham Lincoln, the president of the United States and the commander in chief of Union forces, was the first Republican president.
So it seems odd (to me, at least) that a Republican congressman from Iowa would display a Confederate flag on his desk. But that’s what Rep. Steve King did as re- cently as 2016. (He removed it only after it was revealed that a cop killer had waved a Confederate flag at an Iowa high school football game.)
I’m not one of those people who think everyone who displays a Confederate flag is necessarily a racist or a bigot. But I usually reserve the benefit of the doubt for actual Southerners who are nodding to tradition or nostalgia.
If there’s one thing King has not earned it’s the benefit of the doubt. Even accounting for an IQ that seems to be in conflict with the idea that white people are superior, the man understands what he’s up to.
In an interview with the New York Times published Thursday, King asked: “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive? Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?”
The obvious answer is because he needed an education — and still does.
Contrary to the prattle of white nationalists and supremacists (and, interestingly, various leftwing theorists and black nationalists such as Louis Farrakhan), Western civilization is not synonymous with whiteness. Many of the people King would count as white today were not considered white by various giants of American white nationalism and white supremacy. Czechs, Hungarians, Poles, Italians, Greeks et al. weren’t “whites” at the beginning of the 20th century, when the Steve Kings of that era were terrified of non-white immigrants.
Among the best ideas and ideals of Western, Christian and, most importantly, American civilization is that we are supposed to judge people on their individual merits, not keep score based on their ancestry.
This vision was central to the creation of the Republican Party, which is why it’s so dismaying that Rep. King calls himself one. Goldberg is editor-at-large of National Review Online. Send email to goldbergcolumn@gmail.com.