This doesn’t surprise me.

I’ve seen the Confederate Battle Flag used everywhere from Ireland to Ukraine. Actually, I see more people flying Confederate flags in the border states than I do around here:

“A short walk from where President-elect Abraham Lincoln made the last train stop in his home state before leaving for Washington on the verge of the Civil War, a Confederate battle flag flies from a home garage.

The property belongs to former Mayor Greg Cler, who runs a car repair shop in this central Illinois village of 3,500 people. Cler isn’t from the South. He grew up about five miles away, in Pesotum, where his father, like most others in the region, farmed corn and soy. But Cler has long felt an attachment to the flag.

“Part of it is an act of rebellion,” he said.

The other part is tied to the national turmoil surrounding race and identity. Cler sees the flag as a fitting symbol of white people’s shared grievances, which, he says, have new resonance today.

“I proudly fly it like I do the American flag,” he said, nodding to the two red, white and blue banners – representing opposing sides of the country’s bloodiest conflict – waving in synchrony above his head.

Perhaps the most contentious of American emblems, the Confederate flag is grounded in a history of slavery and segregation in the South. But despite recent moves to eradicate it from statehouses, vehicle license plates and store shelves, the banner has been embraced far from its founding region, still flying from spacious Victorian houses in New Jersey, above barns in Ohio and over music festivals in Oregon. …”