Last week my inbox was stuffed with e-mails from Howard Dean supporters calling me, in so many words, an idiot for not seeing that Dean’s brash style is what makes his candidacy so refreshing and attractive. The convincing case against my idiocy aside, I hardly think Dean’s latest faux pas is what his supporters had in mind.

“I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks,” Dean said this past weekend.

These comments drip with racial insensitivity, as embracing the Confederate flag alienates black voters and flies in the face of the Democratic Party’s rich tradition as the party of civil rights.

Individuals have the right to display any flag they want; but for a Democrat to use the Confederate flag for political gain boggles my mind. And although Dean is by no means a racist, no one should welcome comments that gloss over centuries of bigotry and intimidation.

True, Democrats have lost support among southern whites, mostly along cultural issues such as civil rights. But what’s politically expedient isn’t always what’s morally right. Democrats could have stayed the party of “guys with Confederate flags” 50 years ago, but chose instead to reform and ensure the dignity of millions over the provinciality of a few.

When people make potentially divisive comments, it’s easy to pile on and brand them racists, anti-Semites, etc. Let’s be clear: Dean isn’t a racist, but he does have a history of making outlandish claims to grab headlines. Over the summer he asserted he was the only white candidate who talked about race to white audiences — a blatant lie considering how Wesley Clark and John Kerry talk about serving with people of all backgrounds while in the military. Also Joe Lieberman recalled his time as a Freedom Rider in the 1960s and John Edwards often shares his experiences growing up poor in the rural, multi-racial South.

Dean needs only to look to Al Gore, who got pummeled for even the most benign exaggerations, to realize his words will catch up with him.

Dean later qualified his comments by saying he wanted to unite struggling families of all colors under the Democratic banner. No one would argue with that goal, but if Dean meant “poor white folks,” then he should say “poor white folks.” Democrats do need to make inroads with whites who, even against their economic interests, have left the party over cultural issues. But how does he (and his e-mail-happy student supporters) explain using the most divisive symbol in American history to unite people?

Dean counters criticism that he’s too liberal by saying his style will “turn out the base” in record numbers; indeed, his fire-breathing rhetoric and penchant for the outrageous excites limousine liberals. But as someone who comes from an overwhelmingly white state and spent his childhood summers frolicking in the Hamptons, Dean had better stop alienating the party’s most loyal base of support.

Democrats deserve a nominee who unites people under the stars and stripes, not the stars and bars.