Posted on 04/06/2015 11:47:50 AM PDT by C19fan
In a speech one month ago, the first black president of the United States challenged millions of white Americans to resist the convenient allure of overlooking the country’s blemished moral record. It was a dual challenge, actually—first to the classical understanding of American exceptionalism, but also to America’s persistent critics, who abjure the concept of exceptionalism altogether.
“What greater expression of faith in the American experiment than this?” President Barack Obama said. “What greater form of patriotism is there than the belief that America is not yet finished, that we are strong enough to be self-critical, that each successive generation can look upon our imperfections and decide that it is in our power to remake this nation to more closely align with our highest ideals?”
(Excerpt) Read more at newrepublic.com ...
I am not a fan of the Confederacy, but this is just stupid.
Confederate soldiers fought as tenaciously and bravely as any people in history for the cause they believed in. The war was at root a dispute over what America was going to be.
I think the CSA was mostly, though not entirely, on the wrong side of that dispute. I’m glad they lost, for American and the world, but valor even in a mistaken cause can be honored.
BTW, we name warships and fighting helicopters after Indians, individuals and tribes that fought America as hard as they could and lost. Mostly with a great deal less honor than showed by the CSA.
Now we all recognize those Indians are Americans too. Fail to see why we can’t do the same with Confederates.
What day would you select? The surrender of The Army of Northern Virginia (R. E. Lee), the surrender of Joseph Johnston’s army, the surrender of the armies in Texas, or some other date?
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None of the above.
The [insert pet name of the American conflict 1861-1865 here] was really over in 1863, in early July, when Lee’s northern experiment crashed and burned along with the fall of Vicksburg.
At no point following that did the Confederacy have any chance in succeeding.
So let’s use July 4. The best part, we already celebrate it.
Do you really think the democrats have lost their slaves?
I love both sides of this conflict. It disgusts me that there are people who want to destroy the memory of all those boys who died so honorably - on both sides. Shame on all of them. They have no understanding of history. And no mercy.
Sherman: because it’s a proxy war against the modern day southern conservatives who still uphold American values. By undermining the past, they undermine the present.
What’s so inferior about the South? It’s got better food, better weather and nicer people. I speak as a northeasterner.
Like making the Death of States Rights a national holiday.
I think he was being sarcastic.
Oops!
I call it the War of 1861. That keeps all the politics out of the discussion.
Only if “The New Republic” keeps Johnathan Glass’ name at the top of their letterhead.
I agree, for the most part.
And it’s not just southern conservatives. It’s intended to make “America” look bad and be ashamed of its history.
If America’s past is all bad, then any possible change must be good.
An idiotic and illogical argument, but a popular one on the left.
I was being sarcastic. I was born and raised in the south, and much of what you say is true.
Dixie Ping
Fort Hood and Fort Bragg are named for Confederate generals. Maybe the feeling was that on balance they did more to help than to hinder the Union victory.
But are you implying that "the War of Northern Aggression" is somehow tendentious?
Don’t forget Fort Polk.
How about just inaccurate?
I am thinking contemporary women and men would have been horrified at the thought of this. Lincoln, I know, would have been.
Thanks—I had forgotten about Fort Polk (named in honor of Leonidas Polk, not his second cousin President Polk).
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