I love the country just fine, but i'm not interested in lying about it's past. It had ugly parts when it started, and there is no sense in whitewashing over them.
The Civil War represents a huge departure from what the Founders thought they were creating. The massive overbearing central government which we now deal with was not at all what they had in mind when they created the nation. Lincoln is mostly responsible for putting us down the path of Federal totalitarianism.
Hogwash. The passage of the 16th Amendment in 1909 (which was strongly supported by the democrats in the south) and the Wickard vs Filburn decision by the Supreme Court in 1942 did more to expand the federal government powers than anything Lincoln did.