Old Times Need Be Forgotten 4/9/10

I am not sure why Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and his ilk feel it is so important to commemorate the history of the Confederacy this month. I have never understood why the Confederacy, which stood for the rights of white people to own slaves, to murder them, rape them, separate them from their families, and deny them all human rights, is looked upon nostalgically by so many white people.

I see it as a tragic era in the history of The United States, which was only ended by an incredibly divisive and destructive war. I see the Confederate Army as the military arm of an ideology of inequality, hatred, and injustice. And I view anyone who glamorizes it, or even wishes to commemorate it, as a sympathizer with evil. The same way I regard neo-Nazis, Holocaust deniers, and Al-Qaeda supporters.

So, I can't relate to what Gov. McDonnell, who is considered a rising star in the Republican Party-the party of Abraham Lincoln-thinks when he glamorizes the Confederate soldier as one who was just fighting to defend his homeland, and leaves out any mention of slavery from his initial proclamation. But, I get it. I know why he did it. Because he represents that wing of the Republican Party that knows, deep down, and History has shown it to be accurate, that his party was resurrected in the South, the day the Democratic Party adopted a civil rights plank in its national platform in 1948. The Republicans ceded the moral highground on race, which they had held since Lincoln, so that they could gain the southern white vote. And sadly, it has largely worked.

McDonnell and his Klan just cannot help themselves. The man who gave the GOP rebuttal to President Obama's State of the Union speech, saw an opportunity to pander to whites who are suspicious of a black President with an ambitious social reform agenda. Suspicions which have largely been stoked by prominent Republican figures like Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, and Governor McDonnell. It is cynical, and it is calculated, and it is terrible for the future of this country that we love.

By the way, today marks the 145th anniversary of Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox, VA. The Confederacy lost. I would say the right side one the Civil War. But Governor McDonnell would like us to believe that the good guys lost. That the cause they fought for-defense of liberty-was just, and that slavery was just a minor issue. When, actually, it was THE issue. Just as today, when the issue really is race.

Thanks for reading.