As I have pointed out before, when I was a senior editor of the Partisan, they decided to be Shrewd. Instead of backing the diagonal flag all living Southerners recognize, some at the magazine proposed that the Partisan back a square flag. All they ever showed from then on was the blocky, ugly square flag.

The Partisan did end up backing the flag we had, but their constant cries of "Navy Jack!" did us a lot of harm, and liberals gratefully took up that cry.

You see, said the Partisan, the Klan waved the diagonal flag, so they would give that up and ask for a square flag, the 1860's-style battle flag.

Others have proposed other flags.

But the NAACP doesn't want any of them, so what's the point, except to begin the surrender process?

Back to the real world. In the Year of Our Lord 2000, there are no square flags flying over the heads of any living human beings. Every flag on earth is DIAGONAL, except Nepal's, which is shaped like snake's tongue. The square flag is a period piece, a flag that was carried by men long dead.

If the flag is merely a memorial, with no meaning for modern Southerners, then it should be square. It should also be pure cotton, made in the South, and so forth. It should be, in short, a relic.

And that is exactly what will fly behind the Confederate Monument: a hidden Dead Man's Flag.

For those who are only interested in the South as a memorial, this is just fine. But the simple fact is there is no place in modern America for Southern memorials. We have a Politically Correct national religion, a single culture, called "Multiculturalism," which has been formulated by professors and planners and changes daily according to the feelings of Federal judges. No Southern memorial will last.

Just as everybody's property is nobody's property, everybody's culture is nobody's culture. For those who consider the Confederate flag to be a Dead Man's Flag anyway, this hardly matters.

But those of us who live in the real world know that there is no place for anything Southern in modern American society. We are a nation or we are nothing.

The only reason conservative Republicans have ever had any influence inside their own party was because they could point to Democrats of principle.

At the 1948 Republican convention, moderates and liberals once again took the party away from the conservative majority and nominated Dewey over Taft. Republican conservatives all took that kick in the teeth and came up smiling and backing Dewey.

The only time Republicans ever won nominating a moderate was when they nominated a war hero or the Democrats went far, far left. So they lost with Dewey.

Over at the Democratic Convention of 1948, Southern Democrats got kicked in the teeth and marched out. Many of them might have backed Taft. With Dewey, they backed the hopeless but principled candidacy of Strom Thurmond. Not one single Northern Republican offered to join them. So moderates and liberals would rule Republicanism for almost two generations, until they made the switch to get Reagan Democrats to vote Republican.

In 1964, we Goldwater Republicans could point to conservative Democrats who were willing to desert the party of their fathers if the Republicans went conservative. Later, they became Reagan Democrats. In 1964, when Goldwater faltered, there was talk of a Wallace third party candidacy. If Goldwater had lost the California primary, there would have been a moderate or Rockefeller nominated.

But if Wallace had been the only conservative left, and Rockefeller had been nominated, how many Republican conservatives might have lined up behind Wallace? Probably practically none. Only Democratic conservatives have ever put principle above party. No matter how near the Democrats they went, moderate and respectable conservative Republicans could always depend on absolutely slavish Republican loyalty.