Confederate Confusion

I’ve really thought about how to get into this piece, and I’ve decided that I’m just going to put it right out there! Could someone please tell that jerk McDonnell that the Republican Party WON the Civil War! I’m sorry, but what the hell is going on here?!?! Okay okay, before you start screaming, true the GOP is quite clearly no longer the same animal of Lincoln’s Republican Party. However given the underlying theme of this blog being party politics, I just couldn’t resist making that point. While the GOP is sniveling over how they can’t get any support from the African American and Latin American voters in this country, maybe they should be vetting out party members like good old Bob here, who apparently has had to be forced and pressured into admitting (and amending his proclamation) that slavery is both a bad thing and a significant part of Virginia’s Civil War history.

Okay, lets play a little game. I will make a statement and you tell me which party’s battle cry this sounds like.

1. What do you mean you’re against the war in Iraq? That’s un-American!
2. You don’t agree with the Patriot Act? Your Unpatriotic!
3. Gay Marriage? Un-American!
4. Health care for everyone?!?! What are you, a communist? That’s not the American way!

It seems like it is the Republican way, to resort to calling even slightly liberal positions and policies as un-American and unpatriotic. So it is in THAT vein I that would like to call attention to this notion of harking back to, honoring, and celebrating Confederate History. Because it seems to me that there couldn’t possibly be ANYTHING less American or less Patriotic than celebrating the Confederacy – an armed and violent insurrection aimed at dividing the nation. So Bob, are you a bad Republican… or just a rogue? …or maybe a maverick?!

And another thing. – Bob McDonnell, even though your party has fallen from grace since its formidable days of Abraham Lincoln, is it really your goal to be espousing the doctrine of states rights to the extreme degree of succession? Incase you have forgotten, the Civil War was the bloodiest most tragic event in domestic American History… the Confederacy STARTED it, and the Confederacy LOST! Now ask yourself honestly – should the government of Virginia be celebrating this particular legacy? Or would it be more appropriate for it to be offering a public apology? How about a public apology to the descendants of those who were formerly held in bonded servitude, or the descendants of those soldiers who died in an ill fated and ill guided war (I mean of course from the Confederate perspective!). Or maybe the new Republican way is akin to living in some delusional bubble apart from reality. Well Bob, I sure am glad that you’re in Virginia making an ass of yourself and your state and not in Texas writing textbooks that will make asses of our children!

One more comment I’d like to make that the Texas textbook debacle brings to mind. Which is that clearly, by and large, history is written by the winners. I can think of examples where I think this tendency is to the detriment of the common body of knowledge that is shared by all of mankind. Often times, the losers of a conflict have been dominated over and taken advantage of by a stronger and self-serving opponent. We see this in oppressive governments subjugating their citizens, and in expanding governments that have decimated native populations. In these instances the winners writing history get to paint themselves in a noble light, and to characterize the losers as brutal, uncivilized, or somehow inferior by nature. I understand how this happens – that the winners write the story – but I have to say that I see it as a loss to the truth of history and a loss to the common body of knowledge that we share. The most useful thing about history is the use of it as a tool to predict the future, understand the present and make decisions today. It is hard to do that well with such a warped and distorted story to go on. In this vein I do support the idea that multiple sides of story can and should be told and recorded in the annals of history. In McDonnell’s case though, I’m afraid it is not his goal to record the plight and story of the Confederacy as the losers to some oppressive and brutal enemy. If that be the case – then I say – let the story be told, the whole un-American story, and I’m fine with that being part of the Republican ethos. I’m afraid his efforts only lead to more distortion and delusion, and the worst thing of all is that it breeds and feeds stupidity and hatred. This kind of ignorance mongering is about as unpatriotic as the Confederacy!