Campaign  Georgia
A  Political  Journal

The  First  Flag  Referendum

After Roy Barnes changed the state flag in 2001, the state’s leaders confidently said the flag issue was over.  During the 2002 political campaigns, Sonny Perdue said that he would let the people decide in a referendum, then ran from the issue.  Everyone else, including Georgia Republican Party  Chairman Ralph Reed, said the flag was not an issue.

The flag “non-issue”, however, helped defeat Roy Barnes.  In 2003,  new  elected Governor Perdue got the flag changed, and a referendum of sorts to go with it.  The referendum didn’t include the flag everyone had expected to be a choice, but those in power said the flag  issue was over.  No matter which flag the voters chose, it wouldn’t be the 1956 flag.  The Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and Bush White House were particularly happy.

Late in 2003,  three months before the March 2, 2004,  referendum between the Roy Barnes Flag and Sonny Perdue Flag,  a small cloud appeared on the horizon.  A coalition of Southern Heritage organizations started lobbying for the double referendum which had passed the Democratic House in 2003 but had been stopped in the Republican Senate.  It would have  let the voters choose between the Sonny Perdue, Roy Barnes, and 1956 flag in the July  2004, General Primary.  They called their proposal the Fair Flag Act.

There was no open indication those in power were the least bit concerned by these malcontents.  Representative Tyrone Brooks echoed the position of official Georgia, when he said the flag issue was closed and the legislature would not revisit it. There was no surface indication the flag concerned anyone at the Capitol, and Governor Perdue said he planned no campaign to support his flag in the referendum.

Many  Senators and Representatives said they would sign the Fair Vote Act and vote for the bill, but no one was willing to introduce it.

There is a story, as yet unproven, that when the Heritage Coalition raised its populist head, the republican and democratic leadership in the House, Senate, and Governor’s office took collective action to make sure the Fair Flag Vote never even got introduced:  they quietly threatened  any legislator who introduced The Fair Vote Act  with ostracism, and retribution in redistricting if reapportionment came up in the 2004 session. 

If the story is true, it reveals the Democratic and Republican leadership of Georgia were willing to take  extreme measures to prevent voters from getting to vote for the 1956 flag. It also  shows no matter how unconcerned they are in public,  privately they are panicked by the flag issue.

As the March 2, referendum approached, word spread that if voters chose the Roy Barnes flag instead of the Sonny Perdue flag the whole flag issue would be reopened.  The Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and others spent several hundred thousand dollars  in a mailout, TV, and radio campaign urging voters to support the Perdue flag.

Like a mantra, the media  reported the half-truth  that the Sonny Perdue flag is  based on the national flag of  the Confederacy.  It’s based  on a rejected provisional confederate flag, not the national flag of the Confederate States of America. But groups and individuals out to ban rebel heritage don’t value the truth highly.  Half-truths, misconceptions, and outright lies  are typical tactics  in their efforts.

For the most part, heritage groups urged voters to boycott the referendum. The flag most  people wanted to vote on wasn’t even on the ballot.  It was no real surprise the Perdue flag got the most votes, and the despised and friendless Barnes flag was left in the electoral dust.

Politicians who had looked worried for weeks at the capitol were smiling and relaxed the next day, as if all their problems were over.  Sonny Perdue had a smile so wide it almost ran off  his round face. Since the referendum, we have all heard ad nauseum the Perdue flag got almost seventy-five per cent of the votes, and the Barnes flag just over one fourth.   Politicians and the media have unanimously announced the flag fight is over.  Again.

Well, not exactly.  Less than twenty percent of the voters went to the polls—19.8 percent, in fact.  They were loyal republicans and democrats, true believers who typically toe the party line.  Both parties urged them to vote for the Perdue Flag, and several hundred thousand dollars were spent on advertising to persuade them.  Most of them followed orders, and the Perdue flag got almost three fourths of the votes.  But this impressive sounding percentage of votes amounted to fourteen and seven-tenths of Georgia’s voters, that’s right, 14.7% of the voters.

None of the smiling politicians at the capitol, no one in the media, were willing to admit a fact they all know:  had the 1956 flag been on the ballot, voter turnout would have been high and the 1956 flag would have gotten more votes than either the Sonny Perdue flag or the Roy Barnes flag. The 1956 flag  was kept off the ballot by ruthless, deceitful actions by Sonny Perdue and legislative leaders, a conspiracy  more dishonest than the Yazoo Frauds.

On March 3, a coalition of southern heritage groups  held a press conference at  the capitol.  Far from joining the establishment’s “the flag fight is over” mantra, several spokesmen pointed out the dismal percentage of voters participating in the referendum and the small number of votes the Perdue flag actually got.    William  Lathem, spokesman for the Southern Heritage Political Action Committee, quoted  Winston Churchill after  the Battle of Britain.  “It is, perhaps, the end of the beginning” of the effort to restore the Real Georgia 1956 flag which was taken from the people.

The flag will be taken to legislative campaigns this summer and fall, and likely will be joined with other issues.  The Atlanta Chamber of Commerce has been deeply involved in the flag fight.   After the 2003 legislative session, the chamber newsletter said the Perdue flag referendum was its most important legislative victory, because it “gave the public a vote on the flag” and at the same time completely “removed the (Confederate) battle emblem.”  The  Atlanta chamber and its political initiatives—and legislators in rural and suburban Georgia who have supported those initiatives-- will likely come under  open criticism  in upcoming  state House and Senate races.

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