No region is perfect, but the U.S. would be very far to the left without the South.
The only reason the south seems to be more conservative is because it is more rural. There are few places more conservative than Indiana or Northern CA.
Anyway my point is that playing “what if” is foolish. The war is long over and neither of us nor anyone else alive today participated in it. It just strikes me funny as to why the civil war is still treated as a current event in the south. I really don’t get it.
BTW most of it took place within a hundred miles of where I live.
The reason the Civil War is such an important issue to many southerners is this: Most southerners don’t care much for centralized government power. As the federal government gets bigger and bigger, southerners cherish the memories of their ancestors who fought to secede and were stopped by the federal government, which then used the opportunity of their victory to increase federal power. And the subsequently ratified 14th Amendment has been used by the federal government repeatedly to justify federal power grabs to this very day.
And we’ve only narrowly dodged the bullet on even more federal power grabs under the 14th. For instance, the Boy Scouts won their case a few years ago by a narrow 5-4 vote. The courts may yet use the 14th to force same sex “marriage” on the entire country.
Add in the fact that we’re increasingly browbeaten for honoring our ancestors, whom we’re expected to denounce as evil, depraved monsters in order to receive our Political Correctness certification, and maybe you can understand us a little better. To steal a phrase from The Twilight Zone, there’s a desire on the part of the multi-cultural left to wish the Confederacy into the cornfield, to eradicate it and its symbols from any public display or recognition.
I don’t ever bother with the debates over whether secession was legal or illegal, because they’re endless. But I see no harm over southerners engaging in a little regional pride rebel flag waving, or in honoring Confederate heroes such as General Lee. I understand why the left is so hostile to the South. It stands in the way of their agenda. I don’t understand why some supposed conservatives get so bent out of shape over it. It simply shows the power of Political Correctness and the strength of the race card as a tool for shutting down debate.