Three years ago, then Gov. David Beasley of South Carolina said it was time to stop flying the Confederate battle flag over the state capitol. The moderate Republican paid the price with a defeat in the next election. Yesterday, some 20,000 South Carolinians rallied for the same cause, devoting their Martin Luther King Jr. holiday to a highly appropriate purpose.

In contrast to these acts of conscience and conviction stand — make that waver — the three leading contenders for the Republican presidential nomination. Despite their differences on other matters, Gov. George W. Bush, Sen. John McCain and Steve Forbes stand united in their unwillingness to take a stand on precisely the kind of issue that defines character.

The question of whether the Stars and Bars, to many a symbol not of valor but of oppression, belongs atop South Carolina’s most important public building has been asked repeatedly in recent weeks, as recently as the Sunday morning talk shows. The three GOP candidates coyly answer that it is a state issue, not a federal one.

Which is gutless ducking. No one is suggesting that the federal government should dictate how any state decorates its buildings. The question is simply whether these three — as human beings, not as politicians — believe it is right for a government at any level to continue to endorse a practice that originated in hatred.

This is not at all the heritage issue these candidates would like it to be. The battle flag is not South Carolina’s official flag. It has not flown over the capitol since Gen. Beauregard bombarded Fort Sumter — it was first hoisted in 1962 by an act of a state legislature clearly and deliberately hostile to the civil-rights movement. There may have been glory, chivalry and heroism in the flag’s origin, but this particular application is about segregation, prejudice and lynching.

The two Democratic contenders have been blunt on this one — both Vice President Al Gore and former Sen. Bill Bradley agree that this flag, given the circumstances of its placement 38 years ago, must come down. Of course, as liberals, they have the luxury of not having to worry about losing the redneck vote.

Which is what this GOP paralysis is all about. The South Carolina primary is an important one — it’s early, the first real test after Iowa and New Hampshire. The fate of Gov. Beasley is a still-fresh reminder of what happens to those run afoul of the racist vote. It would take a fair amount of courage for one of these Republican candidates to unequivocally state his personal opposition to something so intentionally mean-spirited. It would take character.