There are many issues of ethics and openness in elite interviewing that I have learned how to deal with through the years.Thanks to Beth L. Leech, Rutgers University, for including me in this workshop. I learned a lot listening to my fellow interviewers and gleaning wisdom from their experiences. Thanks also to Jeffrey Berry and the Political Organizations and Parties Section of APSA for putting the workshop on. My work has focused on people who cause trouble: protesters, litigants, defendants, sidewalk counselors, rescuers, and abortion providers, to name a few. Of course, in dealing with people you are studying you must be honest and ethical. It is important to remember that their activism comes from something they deeply feel. Their activism is because of their beliefs, opinions, experiences, and sense of community. They do not exist as activists so that you can add more lines to your vita or finish your dissertation. You must leave them in the same position in which you found them. You must do no harm to them.

The interest group and social movement mobilizations to remove the Confederate Jag, which had been /lying since 1962,from atop the South Carolina State Capitol dome provides an instance where large, issue-specific coalitions successfully expanded the scope of a conflict andframed an issue in a universalistic discourse of inclusive citiienship. The groups and movements seeking to keep the /lag on the dome of the capitol experienced cascading defections in part based on a narrow vision of histoty the political context, and goals for the future. Based on seventeen in-depth interviews with interest group activists; key members of the South Carolina legislature; and educational. religious, and business leaders active in the issue along with observations at five pro and anti-/lag demonstrations and rallies, this study seeks to explain how the effort to remove the Confederate j l a g was partially successful. The analysis includes media attention from 1962 to 2000 in South Carolina regarding the Confiderate flag and public opinion on the flag over time. Prior interest group work helpedprepare the terrain for the mobilizing effects of several galvanizing events-the NAACP tourism boycott and national media attention during the highly contested 2000 Republican primary in the state, which in turn pressured institutions-parties, the legislature, and the governor-to respond. The struggle was an instance of applied philosophy.

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