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“You can’t pull words out of a song!” That’s an old Russian saying. That is, you can’t change the past. It’s what it is, whether you liked what happened or not. Should we remove statues of Robert E Lee or Jefferson Davis? I think that’s far deeper than what many believe it to be, both “liberal” and “conservative”. It’s not merely racism. That’s an evasion. Yes… racism was deep in the Confederate States of America. It lost its bid for national independence because it wouldn’t abandon human bondage. That’s all that the Brits wanted. If the secessionists had abolished slavery, the Royal Navy would’ve escorted British-flag ships into Southern ports… “free trade” was their mantra, after all.
Yet… racism wasn’t the only trope in the Confederacy. You demean them by defining them solely as such. Another point of contention, one still unresolved at present, I might add, was the relationship of the constituent states to the federal government. Still another was the cultural difference between the Southern and Northern states (a difference that still exists… a difference as deep as that between Prussians and Austrians). It was like the Whites in the Russian Civil War. Yes… they were for an Upper Middle Class dictatorship over all other classes (which was the primary reason for their failure), but that wasn’t the end-all and be-all of their movement.
American history is more than just slavery and the war against the Native population. Yes… both these themes are there and both are seminal, both are a blot on the national consciousness, but they’re not the entirety of the story. I’d be careful about removing statues. Today, it’s THEIR statues. Tomorrow, it’ll be YOURS. Do think on that…
BMD
Voices from Russia 
12 March 2016. Why the Stars n’ Bars Aren’t Just “Southern Heritage”
Tags: American Civil War, American history, Confederacy, Confederate flag, Confederate States of America, CSA, flags, history, human bondage, political commentary, politics, secession, Secession in the United States, Slavery, United States, USA
These are the sorts who fly the Confederate banner proudly… I need add nothing…
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Let’s keep it simple for the simple-minded… SLAVERY. The Confederate banner is a symbol of oppression and human degradation. After all, the CSA did instigate and fight a war to extend slavery’s existence and extent… Lord Palmerston told Slidell and Mason that if the CSA abolished slavery, Britain would break the blockade. Note well that human bondage was so important to the CSA that it chose national death as it couldn’t bear even the thought of abolishing it. Ergo, the CSA was objectively evil, and all those who praise it share in that evil.
BMD