An eighteen-year-old man is the latest victim in the coast-to-coast carpet-bombing war of political correctness.
On Monday, a Marine Corp recruiter rejected Anthony Bauswell for wearing a Confederate Flag tattoo.
The recruiter in Conway, Arkansas determined the tattoo was racist and therefore against Marine regulations on tattoos.
Bauswell told a local TV station, “[The recruiter] says DQ, just automatically DQ.”
According to the Marine Corp Recruiting Command recruits cannot have any tattoos that are deemed “prejudicial to good order, discipline or morale” and that includes tattoos that are “sexist (express nudity), racist, eccentric or offensive…”
The Marine Corp allows tattoos though the size and placement are regulated. Full sleeve tattoos, for instance, are banned, as are tattoos of drug paraphernalia.
Bausell said he included the words “Southern Pride” on the flag to make sure no one thought the flag was a symbol of racial hatred. But, that was not enough for the recuiter whose race has not been revealed.
Long the bête noir of progressives who have wanted the Confederate past dispatched down the historical memory hole, the efforts to expunge that part of the Civil War picked up speed after the shootings in a Charleston, South Carolina Church last summer. Flags and statues started coming down all over the country.
In June South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley called for the removal of the removal of the Confederate flag from state capital grounds. She said, “The flag, while an integral part of our past, does not represent the future of our great state.” Senator Lindsay Graham stood beside her that day.
Presidential hopefuls Jeb Bush and John Kasich quickly voiced support for Haley’s decision.
Former GOP standard bearer Mitt Romney also got involved saying the flag was “a symbol of hatred.”
Jeb Bush said the Confederate Flag in Florida had been removed from state grounds and placed in a museum “where it belongs.”
Senator Ted Cruz said at the time that it was up to the citizens of South Carolina. “I understand the passions that this debate evokes on both sides. Both those who see a history of racial oppression and a history of slavery, which is the original sin of our nation. And we fought a bloody civil war to expunge that sin. But I also understand those who want to remember the sacrifices of their ancestors and the traditions of their states — not the racial oppression, but the historical traditions. And I think often this issue is used as a wedge to try to divide people.”
Where Ted Cruz’s response was respectful of southern pride, Donald Trump’s wimpy response was indistinguishable from Jeb Bush’s. Rather than stand up to political correctness and the social justice warriors, Trump said the flag should come down and go into a museum.
It should be remembered that such cultural and political humiliation was never on the mind of President Lincoln and his generals who did not rub the northern victory in the face of southerners. Such magnanimity was credited with keeping the war from continuing in what would have been a prolonged and very bloody guerrilla phase.
Follow Austin Ruse on Twitter @austinruse
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