I wish Southerners would abandon their obsession with the Confederate flag as the best symbol of their heritage because too many racists have made it a symbol of idiocy, and their bad behavior is giving rednecks a bad name.

The latest example is the anonymous loser in South Carolina who planted the flag in the yard of James Case and his wife, an interracial couple. The loser is the newest dishonoree in the “Redneck Hall of Shame.”

Brian Hicks, a columnist at The Post and Courier, rightly took him to task in print:

With a thing like this, people quickly make up their minds. If it walks like a redneck and talks like a redneck, it must be a redneck — what other motive could there be?

So whoever you geniuses are, thanks for perpetuating ugly stereotypes about South Carolina. Just when we thought we were out, they pull us back in. …

“I’m sure the flag is not racist to a lot of people,” Case said. “But when it’s used like that, I don’t think there is any other interpretation.”

That’s exactly right. Not everyone who is interested in, or commemorates, our state’s history is a racist. But anyone who would do this most assuredly is. There is a big difference, and it’s something more people need to realize.

True rednecks need to realize it more than anyone and loudly condemn everyone who uses the Confederate flag to make a racist statement. And think twice about using the flag at all. Like it or not, the flag has been forever tarnished because of the racists who embraced it as a symbol of segregation.