7 in 10 Republicans Say Confederate Flag Isn’t Symbol of Racism. 83 Percent of Black People Say It Is.

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A pair of new polls show that a whopping 7 in 10 Republicans view the Confederate flag as a symbol of “Southern pride,” while 83 percent of black Americans say it is a symbol of racism.

Symbols of the confederacy have come back into the national media spotlight recently for several reasons: Amid the protests over the police killing of George Floyd, protesters have destroyed monuments and other Confederate icons; President Donald Trump — who has long been a supporter of protecting Confederate monuments — recently laid down a marker defending military bases named for figures who went to war against the United States in order to preserve the enslavement of black people; and NASCAR has just announced it is banning the display of the Confederate flag after pressure from driver Bubba Wallace.

In that context, a pair of new polls show that despite near-unanimity among black voters that the Confederate flag is primarily a symbol of racism, other groups are not convinced.

A Politico/Morning Consult poll found that 70 percent of Republicans view the flag as “a symbol of Southern pride,” much higher than the 44 percent overall who take that view. But only 36 percent of all respondents say the flag is a symbol of racism.

The Huffington Post/YouGov poll found that a nearly identical proportion of Republicans, 69 percent, view the Confederate flag as a symbol of pride, with only eleven percent saying it’s more a symbol of racism. Independents split evenly on the question at 29 percent, while among Democrats, 67 percent view it as racist and 17 percent view it as a symbol of pride.

But the most reliable predictor of these views was the 2016 election. While 77 percent of people who voted for Hillary Clinton say the Confederate flag is racist, only 8 percent of Trump voters say it is.

Leaving aside the obvious premise that a good way to determine whether or not something is racist is to ask the people against which that thing is racist, the poll says something about the political wisdom of Confederate flag politics.

On the surface, it might appear that Trump’s appeals to Confederate heritage are a smart base play that, given the split among independents, might not hurt him so much with the electorate at large. Both of these polls also found considerable ambivalence about the removal of Confederate monuments — a more complicated argument because many argue removing them hides a shameful history.

But the response to another question suggests substantial risk in going all in on the Confederacy. When voters were asked “Do you approve or disapprove of displaying the Confederate flag in public places?”, there was significant divergence from the racism question. The partisan gap was similar, but among independents, 46 percent disapproved versus only 30 percent who disapproved.

And finally, while both of these polls found that public opinion hasn’t changed drastically over the past several years on these questions, what movement there is is in the anti-Confederate direction.

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