New Mexico Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez crossed party lines on Monday to thank South Carolina’s governor for seeking the removal of the Confederate flag that flies atop the statehouse there.
Sanchez, a Democrat, praised the Republican governor on Twitter:
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is asking for something that, in the words of The New York Times, “just a week ago seemed politically impossible.” From the newspaper’s article:
“The events of this week call upon us to look at this in a different way,” said Ms. Haley, an Indian-American, who is the first member of an ethnic minority to serve as governor of the state as well as the first woman.
And more:
It was a dramatic turnabout for Ms. Haley, a second-term Republican governor who over her five years in the job has displayed little interest in addressing the intensely divisive issue of the flag. But her new position demonstrated the powerful shock that last Wednesday’s killings at Emanuel A.M.E. Church have delivered to the political status quo, mobilizing leaders at the highest levels.
There’s an agreement in South Carolina that requires two-thirds of House and Senate members to vote in support of taking the flag down. Whether that requirement is legally binding isn’t clear.
Regardless, Haley’s action was quickly followed by lots of movement in America’s long debate over the Confederate flag. Walmart announced it would stop selling Confederate flag merchandise. Lawmakers in Mississippi are debating removing the Confederate symbol from their state flag. Several GOP presidential candidates backed Haley’s call to take down the flag.
The debate over the flag erupted in Las Cruces in 2012 when the local tea party flew it at a Fourth of July parade. At the time, historian Christopher Schurtz wrote an article about the debate that highlighted New Mexico’s history in the Civil War. And I authored a column calling the tea party’s use of the flag indefensible.