South Carolina House of Representatives votes 94 to 20 to take down Confederate flag. Sons of Confederate Veterans found to be without influence

The article is here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/07/09/south-carolina-house-votes-to-remove-confederate-flag-from-statehouse-grounds/

Nikki Haley called the session to vote to remove the flag, and so it is a sure thing that she will sign.

Republican House Rep. Rick Quinn, son of the former editor of Southern Partisan almost derailed it with an amendment, but he didn't succeed.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) have stronger political support in some states than others. In the long struggle over the Confederate flag in South Carolina they had built up considerable amount of political connections.

It wasn't too long ago that Nikki Haley was bowing and scrapping to neo-Confederates as Kevin Levin reports in his blog showing up to be interviewed by the SCV  who were making sure she was PC, politically Confederate.

http://cwmemory.com/2010/06/14/nikki-haleys-civil-war-memory-when-the-scv-asks/

So if the Sons of Confederate Veterans can be defeated in South Carolina they probably can be defeated most everywhere except maybe a couple of states.

They were defeated by close votes, but by wide margins. This makes it very difficult for SCV to retaliate at the polls by focusing on a few critical swing votes. Instead they will find them having to go after dozens of candidates. They would risk getting the Republican Party angry with them.

Legislators and elected officials now realize that now is the time to clean house of Confederate things.  Every monument removed, every flag taken down, every holiday eliminated represents not having to face a controversy over the Confederacy in the future when it might be the focus of national attention and when the SCV can focus on one issue. Now the SCV's attention is divided over many issues.

The Republicans will be especially eager to get the table cleared of potential Confederate controversies for a couple reasons. One is that they know the Democrats are likely to bring it up as a wedge issue to make things difficult for Republicans. Two they don't want it as an issue for their base to be identified with.

Another reason which will drive further elimination of Confederate symbols is that there will be a lot fewer of them. The precedent is being set again and again that they are undesirable on a bipartisan basis. The remaining instances will seem very anomalous.

Chambers of Commerce, real estate developers, business groups will not want Confederate things hurting the image of their community, especially when they are trying to attract business to their town. Especially when they are trying to hire people to move to their town.

I think that is what the real driving force against Confederate monuments is in Dallas. The business interests realize that it is really bad for business since it make Dallas look too "Old South" and"Plantation" and they are trying to be a city of the 21st century.

The SCV is struggling at this web page to stop the tide.

http://www.scvheritagedefense.org