Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura calls the Confederate flag racist propaganda that should not be supported by any government display, state, local or federal.
On his Off The Grid show for online video provider Ora TV, Ventura, whose name the show itself floats as possible presidential material, said the flag is indeed a part of history, but that stamps of government approval on the banner should be "history" as well.
"For these people that believe the Confederate flag is part of history and should be displayed, they’re correct. In the Museum," he said. "It does not belong being endorsed today by any government inside the USA, be it local, state or federal. We have to look at our past so we can learn from it, but we don’t need to flaunt it."
He said that when the government rubber stamps something, people assume "it has gotta be OK."
South Carolina's governor this week proposed striking the flag from the state capitol following the murder of nine African Americans by an avowed racist. That has added the display of that symbol, which means not states rights or history to African Americans, but slavery and suppression, to the current ongoing debate about the state of race relations in the country.
South Carolina senator and newly announced Republican presidential candidate Lindsey Graham told CNN that he agrees it is time for the flag to be removed from the Capitol.
