“conservative Midwesterners ....... sit back and say nothing”
I couldn’t be more conservative or Midwestern.
Its just this, the north considers the matter settled, many in the south do not.
I have many cousins, Dems and Reps, in the south, they have many of your same views. Our family reunions had to ban race and Civil War talk. I will never forget my grandfather and Pensacola Uncle having a fierce argument, never saw Grandpa so angry.
I remember my son in basic training talking about the recruits from the “dirty south” picking fights with recruits they thought were “Yankees”. When they found out my son was from the State of WA, he didn’t matter to them, only Civil War states had Yankees.
That’s how silly the debate gets.
Its just this, the north considers the matter settled, many in the south do not.
The South considered the matter settled....until PC Revisionists in Academia in the last generation started trying to demonize the South and Southerners all over again. Suddenly we were told the Confederate battle flag which was used by bikers and Rock bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd and on the most popular TV show of the 80s, The Dukes of Hazard, suddenly became a “racist hate symbol” by Leftist Yankees. Then, we were told that various monuments including those in cemeteries needed to be removed. Now they have moved on to Thomas Jefferson. Guess what. Many of the Founding Fathers including George Mason, including Patrick Henry including Madison and Monroe and George Washington were all Southerners.
You think the debate “silly” because its not your history and culture and heritage and ancestors who are demonized constantly be PC Revisionist Leftists.