"I understand what you're saying about the Stars and Bars being associated with some hate groups, but the same thing is true for the Stars and Stripes."

Actually the same is true in England of the Union Jack and the English Flag, the Saint George red cross. Racists and hate groups will use any symbol that has resonance with people.

Over here the Confederate is widely used in the context of Country Music, and doesn't have generally seem to have those kind of associations. Basically it seems to mean "Country music, and America, but not official America".

But I doubt if I'd feel at all comfortable with the same flag if I were in the USA. Symbols have different impacts in different times and place. In India, for example, the swastika is still a good luck sign - the other day on the London Tube I sat opposite an Indian women who was wearing a gold one on her neck. No one would have taken it as a hate symbol. But if the skinhead sitting next to her had been wearing it, it would have had a completely different impact. (Even if he hadn't meant it that way.)