The managing editor of the Washington Examiner opposes flying the Confederate flag because it hurts the conservatives fight for states’ rights:
“The invocation of “states rights” among those waving the Confederate flag while fighting for the evils of slavery and segregation has been devastating to the cause of limited government.
Not only were the institutions themselves an affront to liberty, but in fighting to defeat the institutions, the federal government claimed more power. And to this day, when any conservative tries to make a principled argument in favor of returning more power to the states, they have to grapple with the fact that for many Americans, such arguments are tainted by their historical association with slavery and segregation.
The Confederacy was formed to preserve and expand the brutal institution of slavery, and then its proponents subsequently tried to disguise their motivations in lofty language about states’ rights.”
Read his article.