ETA: Gamma, your sweet innocence on this site is normally kind of charming, but your response on this question is naive at best and infuriating at worst. And Jackie P., Obama didn't cause racism - the flare up is a result of a black man in the White House and people (like you) showing what they really believe underneath it all. Even people who didn't vote for him can't believe the backlash, from Congress to Main Street. And those Clinton buttons you refer to were not ever manufactured or distributed with the endorsement of the campaign. Check your facts from real newspapers: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/06/22...
Original post: If it's a "Southern symbol", it's for white southerners only. It doesn't represent black southerners at all. So the very claim that it represents "The South" is just a denial of its original intent as well as its current use to exclude and to venerate a very dark time in our history.
People have the right to display flags and bumper stickers and tee shirts with any symbol they want, although schools that ban clothing with swear words, drug references, and so on will probably ban this as well (and rightfully so). Several states have made moves to take the flag off license plates too, along with other state properties and official buildings. I expect this will spread.
Stores? They can sell what they want, and I will support or boycott stores based on that, as I already do. I don't shop at Walmart anymore anyway, and while this is a step in the right direction, I'm not yet convinced that it's anything but a PR stunt because they're already under fire for their personnel policies. So, watch and wait. Amazon took it off, but after a 2300% (yes you read that right) increase in sales of flags. I don't buy from them anyway because they've made a fortune off Nazi flags and paraphernalia too. So I'll wait and see if they donate the proceeds from those flags to someplace like the Southern Poverty Law Center or the NAACP. I don't support anyone who excludes others, so I don't set foot in Hobby Lobby and I don't give to the Salvation Army or the Boy Scouts.
I would never walk into a home that displayed the flag, and I would never ride in a car that had that bumper sticker. I would not work for someone who wore it on a belt buckle. Do they have the right to display it? Sure. I hate it, but they have the right. There are businesses that have banned guns from their premises - Starbucks customers, Uber riders, among others, have said "no guns welcome here." That's also a safety concern than a purely political statement, but they are willing to take an economic hit for their stance. Good for them.
I think government buildings have to include all citizens. I know that many Southerners just don't understand how others feel about this flag because it's a part of their own upbringing. I think there are racists who fly that flag, and I think there are otherwise good people who are just unclear and bewildered by the opposition. I think it's the same sort of oblivion that makes otherwise good Christians totally baffled by and upset about not putting Christmas trees in town buildings or public schools. They aren't trying to be mean - they simply don't understand that not everyone is represented by that symbol and that it's exclusionary. Like anything else, if you walk a mile in someone's shoes….
Like the swastika, the Confederate flag belongs in museums and history books. I DO feel that the ancient swastika, a Sanskrit symbol of cultural significance in India and neighboring countries, can continue to be displayed. It was their symbol before Hitler stole it. So I don't have a problem there. But it's not on red flags or armbands or accompanying any other symbols of Nazi hatred and genocide. But it's illegal to display it anywhere in Germany because the government has said "Never again" and faced the ugly past. Maybe Southerners would do similar self-examination and look at the legacy and shameful past they are trying to ignore.