Confederate family history

10 posts

Roody
This is the arc of North-South after the Civil War:

1. Immediate animosity on each side toward the other. Even by Lee's death in 1870 this had cooled enough for many Northerners to admire individual Southerners. For example, Julia Ward Howe, arch-abolitionist and author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, wrote a poem in praise of Lee on his death.

2. By the end of Reconstruction im 1876, the North had mostly moved beyond its prejudices. Resentment remained in the South, but journals such as Confederate Veteran and the Southern Historical Society Papers established the Lost Cause, which moved the South forward. (This was aided by the death of Lee so soon after the war and virtual exile of Jefferson Davis.) Ex-Confederates moved North and West (Robert E. Lee's family lived in New York City, which hosted an annual society dinner in his memory for decades).

The signal change was the Spanish-American War, which saw several prominent Confederate officers, such as Fitzhugh Lee, appointed to high commands in the forces of the United States. Battle flags were returned by Northern veterans to the Southern adversaries who almost forty years before had carried them in the fight. Monuments were erected thoughout the South and in other cities with significant Southern elements, such as Chicago. Of course this is all following on the work of the Redeemer governments, and eventually it all culminates in the election of a spectacular Virginian, Woodrow Wilson.

3. The election of Wilson is a convenient marker for another turning point, the Southern Renaissance. For the next 50 years or so the South is generally acknowledged and respected for its genius--Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, the Fugitive Poets, etc. Obviously the effects of the Civil Rights Movement began to sap that, but even in the 1980s men like Lee and Jackson were uniformly admired.

4. Things shifted sometime in the 90s, I guess with the PC movement. Southern states bowdlerized the words of state songs and the replaced them, just because a version contained the word "darkie." All of a sudden it was gauche to be Lewis Grizzard, whose untimely death is a fine symbol for the collapse of the South's reputation in the 90s.

The NAACP did make a conscious effort to attack symbols of the South at that time (their race-baiting wasn't working well enough then). I don't know how much to chalk up to that decision, but guess who was one of the first sad sack governors to remove a a rebel flag from a state Capitol? Low energy Jeb. All of this was on course well before Roof. I think what really caused the acceleration was the Supreme Court's decision in SCV license plate case (decided the same week of the Charleston shooting). The Court signaled to everyone that it was not going to balance this issue, that it was open season on anything Southern. Blame Clarence Thomas.
auteur_theory

There is also something to be said about the fact that the South never saw much in terms of immigrants, so the whites there are much, much less mongrelized than Northerners. There is therefore more of a sense of essentialism to being Southern. After all, what does it mean to be a "New Yorker" other than "I pay rent here"?

Confederate Rhetoric
You'll be surprised with how many rural whites from Ohio, Pennsylvania fly the Confederate flag. You can see this trend in the 2016 election: rural, working class whites are beginning form a cohesive voting bloc, share an identity. Nate Silver made note of this. The voting bloc of the white working class (he added non-college educated) is so broad electorally that it was possible for Trump to lose by 3 million votes, but to win the election. This gives me hope for the coming years.
auteur_theory
This phenomenon goes way further back than 2016. States that were never in the Confederacy such as Kentucky and Indiana, or the case of West Virginia, were actually formed explicitly to leave the Confederacy, enjoy this phenomenon as well. I've seen it as far into shitlib land as New Jersey and upstate New York. Probably exists in the more rural parts of Yankeedom for all I know (Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine).
Jeb's Favorite Turtle

Southerners and Americans more broadly do not really care about these historical monuments. Some might whine about their removal or protest, but they are not willing to put their bodies on the line for them. Expect most statues and memorials honoring great white Americans in this country to be gone within the next 30 years.

Reflect on this: environmentalists will chain themselves to trees and spike them to try to fuck up loggers but Southern Nationalists can't be bothered to do more than show up, protest for a few hours, beat up some random Jew provocateur in Roman armor, then go home and watch TV.

Confederate Rhetoric
This reminds me of "The Days of Rage". Leftist activists have the benefit of having support in institutions like universities and legal groups dedicated to bailing them out. For activists on the Right, it's an uphill stream both ways. It's easy to regress into complacency when this is the case.
Jeb's Favorite Turtle

That's merely used an excuse for inaction. The reality is no one cares that much and southern nationalism is a posture more than anything else.

Americans are disconnected, atomized, and opposition to the regime ideology is merely surface deep whining.

Confederate Rhetoric

A handful of the Weathermen Underground went on to become professors at universities. It's difficult to carry action that is parallel to leftists when they get tenure for bombings and armed robbery while you can get sacked from your job for saying mean words on the internet.

Boozin through Dixie
I would agree with that somewhat. Last year I remember my class trying to explain to a left wing professor from San Diego this, he would say "I do not think I can teach here next year, I don't want to live in a place where I see Confederate Flags everyday"...(what a bitch), it was almost like he felt sorry for us for having to see this everyday. White students as well as some black students were trying to explain to him that it is just normal, that no average person in the south really thinks twice about seeing a flag or a monument.
Boozin through Dixie

Slowly but surely we have seen the progression of The Old South and anything that resembles it being removed. Personally I remember the Georgia state flag that featured the stars and bars being changed by governor at the time Roy Barnes. Barnes was the last Democratic we have had as governor and a lot of the older generations I know considered this a reason the Georgia governorship doesnt go Democrat anymore (there is a lot of other reasons though).

Then things like southern greek life traditions started to be removed. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/embed/XoTU0om1_So
The girl in that video explains it just like a female family member of mine who participated in that specific event as well. White girls dressing up like respectable women from the 1800s and not like the typical pop culture attire, can not be allowed in this America I guess.

Then we see a show like The Dukes of Hazard having its reruns removed from TVLand after the Charleston shooting. Now the beautiful monuments in New Orleans are taken down. What will the left push for next? The renaming of streets, counties, schools, numerous restaurants/bars.... probably but ultimately I think the big event will be when they come for Stone Mountain. If you dont know what it is, it is sorta like the Mount Rushmore of the South. [​IMG]
Where Robert E Lee, Jefferson Davis and Stonewall are all featured on it. For those who have not been to it, you should if you ever get the chance there is plenty to see there.

All throughout the park there are monuments to the confederacy, several different types of confederate flags fly at the bottom of the mountain and they even play "Dixie" over the speakers. There have been whispers from the left about Stone Mountain for years and after the Charleston shooting someone ripped down the dixie flags but they were quickly replaced.

When the left comes for this place, and they will I think the push back from Southerns will be huge. Just a couple years ago when they had a confederate flag rally there after Charleston the attendance was pretty impressive, as well as there passion. I am not saying that people from Georgia are the most "Southern" but Stone Mountain is place that everyone seems to enjoy not just your typical redneck flying a dixie flag.

On another note here is a song about Confederate Rhetoric visiting Jackson, Mississippi
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/embed/WhnEIJvo8Nw