I understand what Paisley is trying to say. He wants to mend fences without having to change the core of who he is, and also while expecting that those on the other side should not have to change themselves either. And he's really making this discussion a microcosm of "Northern vs. Southern" attitudes, saying that maybe there's still some room for reconciliation.
It's a good thought, but Paisley is being naive to suggest that the confederate flag shouldn't mean anything, and that it should be "all good." I've always wondered why some Southerners feel like they need their own flag, and not just any flag, but the flag that represents owning people to the descendants of all the people who were ever "owned" in America's past. Isn't the american flag good enough? Doesn't the Stars and Stripes also represent freedom, and independence, and perseverance, and equality, and intensity, and patriotism, and all of those qualities that those Southerners feel are embodied by the Stars and Bars? Stars and Stripes aren't good enough, so they have to wave a flag in everyone's face that is as divisive as any one symbol in our entire nation's history? The South has to be "special" enough to get their own "Southern Flag." Someone please tell me what the Confederate Flag represents that is different from what the american flag represents.
And that is just one reason why everyone thinks the South is still fighting the civil war.