De-Confederatizing the U.S. won’t solve anything

Hotair ^ | 07/06/2015 | Taylor Millard

[SeekAndFind]

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” George Santayana in The Life of Reason.

The Civil War was an awful time of American history. It pitted brother against brother, neighbor against neighbor, friend against friend, and state against state. Around 620,000 Americans died in the war, more than any other conflict the U.S. has been involved in. It’s something which will hopefully never happen again. Which is why those calling for the destruction of Confederate monuments are wrong. University of Vermont Emeritus Professor of Society James Loewen wants the United States to be de-Confederatized. He writes a long list of things in The Washington Post he wants gone:

Now the dean of the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., has noted that the cathedral needs to de-Confederatize its stained glass windows. That would be a start for D.C., which also needs to remove its statue of Albert Pike, Confederate general and leader of the Arkansas Ku Klux Klan, from Judiciary Square. The Pentagon also needs to de-Confederatize the Army. No more Fort A.P. Hill. No more Fort Bragg, named for a general who was not only Confederate but also incompetent. No more Fort Benning…De-Confederatizing the United States won’t end white supremacy, but it will be a momentous step in that direction.

Loewen and other critics of Confederate culture are forgetting what happened to Germany after World War II. The country went to extraordinary lengths to destroy any mention of its Nazi past. The government made it a crime for anyone to use writings, symbols, flags, and slogans from Adolf Hitler’s regime. Former WWE wrestler John Bradshaw Layfield escaped prosecution in 2004 after he goosestepped around the ring and used the “Heil Hitler” salute because the salute wasn’t done for political purposes. Layfield was trying to get “heat” with the German crowd so they’d cheer his opponent. Germany has done almost everything it can to make sure Nazism and the Third Reich are anathema in country, yet antisemitism is on the rise. American Jewish Committee member Deidre Berger even asked in The Times of Israel if Germany was safe for Jews to be in. Jewish cemeteries are being desecrated with Nazi symbols in Oldenburg and one man was given probation for shooting a paint ball gun at Jewish gravestones. I24 News reported 95% of antisemitic attacks in Germany were done by Neo-Nazi groups. It even surprised Green Party MP Volker Beck:

“I was a bit astonished to receive these results. The feeling in the Jewish community, as well as my feeling, was that there were more Muslim antisemitic attacks, but the statistics doesn’t support that. This just proves that we need to research the issue more and to get a better assessment of what threatens the security of Jewish people and Jewish institutions in Germany.”

The German government’s “solution” is multiple failed attempts to ban National Democratic Party of Germany because of its Neo-Nazi ties. But MINNPost noted in 2010 government intervention isn’t working:

Interestingly, it’s primarily politicians from eastern Germany, where the NPD is strongest, who have most strongly resisted calls to ban the party. They argue that the only sustainable way to combat neo-Nazi radicalism is through the normal channels of the liberal state — namely, open debate and argument. “Even if you banned the NPD party, they would just rename themselves and come back the next week,” said Andreas Adammer, a resident of Potsdam in the state of Brandenburg, where the NPD has enjoyed success in past elections.

This is why getting rid of Confederate monuments and re-naming schools is a bad idea. It’s going to make people forget how horrific the Civil War actually was. The monuments to Robert E. Lee and other Confederates and the battlefields at Vicksburg, Gettysburg, and Antietam are a main reason why talks of secession these days are met with scorn and derision. The monuments, statues, and school names have to stay up. There’s nothing wrong with pulling down the Confederate battle flag from South Carolina and Alabama. Those were put up in a foolish fight against segregation in the 1950s and 60s. The same with the old Georgia flag. The battle flag was added to that flag in 1956 by state Democratic Party chair John Sammons Bell to fight segregation. There’s no disputing this, it’s fact. But everything else should stay up, if only as a reminder of the past and how destructive the Civil War was. Turning the 1860s into, “the South seceded, lost the Civil War, Lincoln was assassinated, and everything went back to normal,” isn’t the right way to go. It simplifies the matter and makes us forget why things happened, and why a civil war shouldn’t happen again.

[uncitizen]

…De-Confederatizing the United States won’t end white supremacy, but it will be a momentous step in that direction.

calling these people sick AND stupid doesn't even begin to cut it anymore.

[central_va]

It’s going to make people forget how horrific the Civil War actually was.

What is happening today is way worse than Civil War. The FedGov™ is gobbling what's left of our freedoms daily at an increasingly alarming pace.

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.

John Stuart Mill

[Don Corleone]

University of Vermont Emeritus Professor of Society James Loewen wants the United States to be de-Confederatized. He writes a long list of things in The Washington Post he wants gone:

What this faculty lounge drop out wants is total submission to a master government with no state lines, traditions or priorities. IOW a federal dictatorship. Not surprising coming from academia.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

Didn’t Congress pass a law some years ago that stated CW soldiers ARE American soldiers?

[ladyjane]

If he wants an end of white supremacy how does he propose to increase the average IQ of the inner city thug? It’s 25 points below the average white and about 30 points below the average Asian. What can they bring to the table to get that supremacy?

[DH]

Thanks, good post.
You are right “What is happening today is way worse than Civil War. The FedGov™ is gobbling what’s left of our freedoms daily at an increasingly alarming pace.”

THAT IS THE VERY REASON THE SOUTH ROSE UP AGAINST THE NORTH! NOT THE SLAVERY ISSUE.

The old saying “Those who choose not to know past history are doomed to repeat it.” And......here it is repeating itself once again because we chose to provide only politically correct history in all levels of schooling over the past 40 years.

[central_va]

Any commentator who compares the antebellum South to the Nazi Regine automatically goes into the douche bag category.

[Old Sarge]

Ethnic Cleansing - will be followed by arrests, if the Leftists get theri way.

And they will.

[factoryrat]

The next US civil war is brewing as we speak. This time around, the lines of demarcation are going to be much more murky as to the sides in this next domestic war. This time around though, the powers that be are going to rely heavily on foreign powers to fight on their side, along with financial retaliation on an epic scale, and that will go over like a lead balloon for most Americans.

It is coming, and it will only be a matter of when.

[uncitizen]

Hip hop? Thug culture? Pants around their ankles? ...Naaahh, guess they got nutt-in.

Good point, FRiend!

[altsehastiin]

I fear you may be correct. While I don’t think the federal government would oppose secession, if it did, the ensuing conflict would be far worse than the first civil war, because CWII would be dirty war fought by paramilitary death squads and guerillas hidden among civilian populations.

[DoodleDawg]

University of Vermont Emeritus Professor of Society James Loewen...

Loewen wrote a book years ago titled, "Sundown Towns" which he claimed were towns, primarily in the North, which prohibited blacks from living there. In many cases they were towns, small towns, which happened to have a few blacks living in them at one time and which over time had, either through death or moving away or some other natural cause, become completely white. In spite of the fact that he could seldom point to some law or legal reason why they were white, he insisted is was deliberate. When, in fact, it was likely due to blacks having no reason to move to a tiny town in the middle of nowhere.

So if Loewen is a primary source for this article then it's not worth reading.

[Pelham]

Confederate soldiers officially American Veterans by an Act of Congress

[The Great RJ]

Racism today isn’t embodied in the KKK waving Confederate flags, but in race hustlers like Al Sharpton and Barrack Obama who keep playing the race card stirring up Blacks with racial hatred

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

TY!

[triSranch]

Why yes they did.

Under current U.S. Federal Code, Confederate Veterans are equivalent to Union Veterans. From 1776’s through 2015 Veterans ARE still American Veterans and all should be honored..

U.S. Code Title 38 – Veterans’ Benefits, Part II – General Benefits, Chapter 15 – Pension for Non-Service-Connected Disability or Death or for Service, Subchapter I – General, § 1501. Definitions: (3) The term “Civil War veteran” includes a person who served in the military or naval forces of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War, and the term “active military or naval service” includes active service in those forces.
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/04/14/confederate-soldiers-are-american-veterans-by-act-of-congress/

And the honor of the battle flag belongs to these veterans.
We will never give in to the dam kkk and skin heads take over of our veterans battle flag.

To take down the flag, instead of rededicating the battle flag to it’s real Confederate Veterans owners, is a win for the kkk and skin heads.
Also those cheering to take it down are helping the kkk and skinhead take over the flag
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/04/14/confederate-soldiers-are-american-veterans-by-act-of-congress/

[tbw2]

Too many liberals consider the very ethnic group, Caucasians, morally reprehensible, at best earning its right in the public forum by allying with the more morally upright groups (LBGTA, those with more color, etc).

I don’t trust any group that considers white the new black, an inferior group that should be segregated for the safety and comfort of the darker skinned.

[AllAmericanGirl44]

bkmk