You would think, if you can find a few Confederate flag decals in as many days in Idaho, you would spot at least one in Colorado. But you would be wrong. In a brief trip there recently, we saw not one Confederate emblem. Not on a car, not on a shirt, not on a tailgate, not in a bar.
Granted, we don’t go on organized sociological expeditions. But northern Colorado feels very familiar to the Pacific Northwesterner:
- Great beer
- Good coffee
- Legal weed
- Mountains
- People who combine above
So, if Washington and Idaho have sporadic sightings of Confederate symbols, why not the Centennial State? When we did not see any Confederate flags in California, we chalked it up to the state’s majority-minority demographics, combined with a near-secessionist state identity. Colorado, however, is 81 percent white, between Washington (77 percent) and Idaho (89 percent). And so far as we know, it has not recently threatened to leave the Union.
Like California, Colorado has a cool flag. Although not quite as pervasive as the Bear Flag, the Colorado State flag could be seen everywhere, on hats, shirts, real estate signs, and company logos. Is statriotism somehow an opposing force to Confederate identity?
More questions in this post than answers, we’re afraid. But it’s an interesting set of questions.
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