Negativity? Hardly. My side won. And my ancestor in his capacity as Chief Medical Steward for The Surgeon Generals Office in DC during the Civil War had to deal with the carnage Lee and his minions created. You’re 100% a Confederate and 100% a Democrat.
Here it is , plain and simple Reb: Lee was a traitor and your side lost in 1865. Own it.
I have been pessimistically cautious that your ugly prejudices are emotion based; we have read more than enough to know they are not fact based.
Probably your ancestor suffered from post-tramatic Lee
syndrome. And as a child you heard fearful oral histories that bent your twig double.
You are not just an ill-tempered gadfly; you are a noble VICTIM!
And that has caused you to heft the old burden and bitterly reject the wise counsel of Presidents Lincoln, Grant . . .Roosevelt, Roosevelt, Ford, Trump. Plus Churchill and so many others.