Pirate's Cove

I know, I know, you’re shocked that a NY Times op-ed would attempt the “you’re all racists for opposing The One.” Guest editorialist  Jon Meacham gives it the old hysterical and disingenuous try, but, he makes a major whopper along the way. After discussing some of the kerfuffle in Virginia regarding Confederate History Month, Meacham writes

Advertently or not, Mr. McDonnell is working in a long and dispiriting tradition. Efforts to rehabilitate the Southern rebellion frequently come at moments of racial and social stress, and it is revealing that Virginia’s neo-Confederates are refighting the Civil War in 2010. Whitewashing the war is one way for the right — alienated, anxious and angry about the president, health care reform and all manner of threats, mostly imaginary — to express its unease with the Age of Obama, disguising hate as heritage.

In other words, if you oppose the one, you are a racists.

Regarding Confederate History Month, IMO, you cannot ignore slavery, which was one of the root causes of the War of Northern Aggression, as we call it in the South. That said, most Southerners at the time thought more about the federal government becoming more and more powerful in their lives, dictating and making proclamations then the plight of the slaves. Why? Because the majority of Southerners did not own slaves. Slave ownership then was more like owning a Rolls Royce now. And remember, a good chunk of Northerners couldn’t have cared less about the issue, and did not think it was a good reason to go to war.

We can refight the root causes as much as we want, but, it seems Jon has forgotten a few things

If neo-Confederates are interested in history, let’s talk history. Since Lee surrendered at Appomattox, Confederate symbols have tended to be more about white resistance to black advances than about commemoration. In the 1880s and 1890s, after fighting Reconstruction with terrorism and after the Supreme Court struck down the 1875 Civil Rights Act, states began to legalize segregation. For white supremacists, iconography of the “Lost Cause” was central to their fight; Mississippi even grafted the Confederate battle emblem onto its state flag.

But after the Supreme Court allowed segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896, Jim Crow was basically secure. There was less need to rally the troops, and Confederate imagery became associated with the most extreme of the extreme: the Ku Klux Klan.

In the aftermath of World War II, however, the rebel flag and other Confederate symbolism resurfaced as the civil rights movement spread. In 1948, supporters of Strom Thurmond’s pro-segregation Dixiecrat ticket waved the battle flag at campaign stops.

And he goes on and on. What he doesn’t mention is that, Democrats were the party most for the continuance of slavery pre-Civil War. Remember the platform of the Democrats in 1852?

“Resolved, That the Democratic Party will resist all attempts at renewing, in Congress or out of it, the agitation of the slavery question, under whatever shape or color the attempt may be made.

How about this one from 1860 Democrat Party nominee Senator Stephen Douglas (Ill.)

“I hold that a Negro is not and never ought to be a citizen of the United States. I hold that this government was made on the white basis; made by the white men, for the benefit of white men and their posterity forever, and should be administered by white men and none others.”

Much more on the history here. Hey, did you know that the 13th Amendment passed the Senate with 100% Republican support, with 63% of Democrats voting against?

Since the end of the War of the States, the majority of opposition to civil rights came from Democrats. The KKK has its historical roots within the Democrat Party. It was Democrats who enacted segregationist legislation, and tried to keep Blacks from going to schools, sitting at counters with whites, riding at the front of the bus, and were opposed to most legislation giving Blacks civil rights. Not all mind you, but a large chunk, including the elected ones. Here in North Carolina, the Wilmington Racial Massacre and Coup of 1898 was performed by, yes! Democrats.

So, Jon, before you and the rest of your liberal Democrat ilk attempt to travel these “you’re just opposed to Obama because he’s black” roads, lies all, you should take a look at the history of your own party

Some called it the Civil War, others called it the War Between the States, but to the African Americans at that time, it was the War Between the Democrats and the Republicans over slavery. The Democrats gave their lives to expand it, Republican gave their lives to ban it.

History is a stone cold bitch, isn’t it, Jon?

Oh, BTW, Democrats also had major issues with immigrants, especially Chinese, in the late 1800’s – early 1900’s, too.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU