Last Friday, in a muted, five-minute ceremony, an honor guard of gray-clad troopers removed the Confederate flag from South Carolina’s state Capitol lawn. The flag’s long-running second act–taken down in 1865, hoisted back up in 1961– holds many lessons. One is that political correctness cuts both ways. The flag’s defenders say it stands for “states’ rights”or “Southern heritage,” the latter a harmless mix of hospitality, soldierly valor and regional cuisine. For 54 years even some liberals pretended to swallow this lie out of deference to the feelings of those spreading it. We can stop pretending now. It’s a big win, to be sure, but it took long enough.