South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford wants school choice for all, lower taxes, a more efficient state government and economic development.

The NAACP wants to ramp up its invisible boycott of the state over a flag, and to deny tourist dollars to all, including black-owned businesses.

Which approach do you think will benefit black South Carolinians more?

As the old ways of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton lose relevance and die out -- a fact recently highlighted by Jackson's bitter complaints about Barack Obama's new-age race relations -- so will the outdated antagonism of the NAACP.

Its boycott of South Carolina over the presence of the Confederate flag near a monument on the Capitol grounds has never gained steam, and for good reason. For one thing, the legislature long ago arrived at a workable compromise by moving the flag there from atop the Capitol dome.

For another thing, an effective boycott would hurt blacks as much as anyone, all to make a political point in a battle long ceased.

Instead, we would hope the NAACP would remember that one of those "A's" in its name stands for "advancement," and would work hand-in-hand with Gov. Sanford and other leaders to advance the cause of black families in South Carolina.

You do that not through tantrums and attempts to wound, but by rolling up your sleeves and working together on the problems that vex both blacks and whites alike: underperforming schools, unemployment, and inefficient and expensive government.

These are the things that oppress people today.

Given the opportunity to remove a Confederate emblem from Georgia's flag a few years ago, we supported the effort. We're not without empathy for its critics.

But a flag can't do anything to you that you don't allow it to. And the NAACP's anachronistic modus operandi of eternal victimhood is doing much more harm than good. It's infinitely more important to remove the barriers to advancement than it is to remove all vestiges of the old South.

The NAACP is so focused on the latter it can't see the former.

Consequently, it's that organization that's the one stuck in the past.