Please Explain Confederate Pride to Me

americanthinker ^ | June 25, 2015 | Carole Jackson

[Sans-Culotte]

Rather than ask about “Confederate pride”, why doesn’t she explain why the mere sight of a statue of a confederate made blacks “feel terrible”?

[KC_Conspirator]

I am not a big fan of the South’s “Lost Cause” nonsense, and the Stars and Bars flying over a state capitol, however, at this point, this is a leftist Witch Hunt and no better than the Taliban blowing up Buddha statues or ISIS destroying religious shrines.

[dblshot]

You can't understand the Confederacy without looking back to the founding on this country and who immigrated where. To keep it short, let's simply say that people in the colonies wanted freedom from the oppressive government of George III and the English Parliament. Many of the Scots-Irish followed the Whiskey Trail from ports in the North down to the Southern Appalachians. They did not want to pay taxes to a remote government which 100 years latter was becoming increasingly powerful and intrusive while demographic changes resulted in lot of animus between English, Scots-Irish in the South and a more Southern European mercantile and manufacturing population in the North. Slaves did not work out economically in the North while agriculture depended on back breaking labor so there was a difference in economic incentive as well as the moral argument over slavery. When the North started pushing the South over slavery it was another intrusion on the South's economy, particularly the huge plantations whose rich owners sent representatives to Congress to protect their right to own slaves resulting in the North's compromising on only 3/5ths representation for slaves to reduce the number of Southern states votes. Reconstruction as the victors called it or occupation as the losers felt it after the war did not help bring the country together as Lincoln wished. The Flag is a rallying point on the battlefield and has been a symbol of the South's distaste for “foreign” occupation for a long time.

We're getting so many Northerners and worse Californians moving down here that the demographic changes will probably drive a lot of social change in the next couple of generations. My personal opinion is that no flag other than the US, state, and legitimate entity like a municipal government or company flag should be flown but if car lots want to fly a Mexican flag along with the US flag on their lot it really doesn't bother me. The Confederate flag is little different because it does represent animus to the Federal gov’ment at least as far as advocating individual vs. collective rights goes. Perhaps the socialists in charge in DC are using the current tragedy in Charleston as a way to get rid of that rallying point for less big government. Resistance is futile.

[RoosterRedux]

Southern pride is so easy to understand (and this goes for Whites and Blacks and any other person who decides to become Southern).

We are:

• Down to earth, but dignified.
• Christian to the core (for the most part).
• Rural and self-reliant (even when living in a city).
• Believe that a man is only as good as his character regardless of his financial wealth.
• Laid back but feisty...and will fight to the death when riled or threatened.
• Appreciate a thing called Honor...and will fight for it, too.
• Appreciate simply things like friendship, family, pets, hard work, good food, and simple living instead of status and money.

That's what we are like and so were our ancestors. What's not to be proud of.

[central_va]

I am not a big fan of the South’s “Lost Cause” nonsense,

As southerner by birth please don't do me any favors.

[CodeToad]

“So you can’t imagine how a Confederate flag supporter feels but you can imagine how a black person feels? Really?”

Liberals are bigots. Well defined and practiced.

[pepsionice]

There are five facts to start with.

1. The war ended over 150 years ago, with whom three generations of our ‘kin’ have passed on since it occurred. Oddly...most of southerners will admit that we were dirt poor in 1860, and marginally above dirt-poor today. The war didn’t do much or solve much of any issue except slavery.

2. Oddly, ninety-nine percent of people who claim southern status today....never were in any large scale farm situation or owned slaves. You can ask southerners about this and the vast majority can’t even name their ‘kin’ who was alive at the time if they were in the war or just stayed home.

3. Getting any southerner to explain Tennessee’s status of 1860 to 1865....is just about impossible.

4. The pride thing generally only comes from the ‘them-versus-us’ situation. In truth, after the war, the carpet-bagger situation got most local southerners riled up and hostile and created the initial wave of enthusiasm.

5. A lot of this enthusiasm waned off by 1900 and went to a lesser degree. After 1950s, and going into the mid-1960s...for some odd reason, you see fake enthusiasm built up by some fraudulent political gimmicks/groups. A lot of this flag charm stuff came up in this period....rather than the fifty years after the war. No one has ever tasked the news media or historians to chat over fake enthusiasm of this period, and how it wove itself into hundreds of thousands of people. Much of what you see today....is the result of this period, and not the 1860s.

[ponygirl]

Exactly. I believe the story went that a Confederate prisoner in the hands of the Yankees was asked why he (a poor, non-slave holder) was fighting. His response was something like, “We’re fighting you because you came here and picked a fight. We didn’t come to you.”

[FirstFlaBn]

The vets of both sides - Blue and Grey - respected each other and their postwar reconciliation cleared the decks for the unfolding of the American Century. It could have been the Balkans but for the leadership of heroes like Lee and Forrest (and plenty of good Yankees too).

The revolutionaries on the left (and more than a few Lincolnites in this neighborhood) ungratefully accept the benefits that that reconciliation brought - while condemning those Southerners who had the toughest task. (Sorta like the way the left got all the benefits of winning the Cold War after having resisted every policy that led to the victory - there’s gratitude for you).

The South has always been more patriotic than other parts of the country. The post-Reconstruction unwritten agreement that evolved was: both sides can have their heroes as unity today is more important than waving the bloody shirt for short term political advantage. That’s an example of tolerance - not the phony kind the left celebrates.

That deal held until the 1980s. It is now in tatters because the left always needs a bogeyman - and ignorance of history plays into their hands.

[PROCON]

Shenandoah, a classic movie, I have watched it numerous times.

[GeronL]

Apple has apparently pulled all civil war games from Itunes because of the confederate battle flag depicted in them,

the insanity continues

[KC_Conspirator]

Please read the rest of the post before responding.

[DoodleDawg]

Ever heard of “Northern Pride”? Me neither.

We follow Washington's admonition and place pride of country over any sort of regional feelings.

[Triple]

Quick Take on Civil War:

Suppose for a moment that the Federal government wanted to pass laws and enact policies that effectively removed the individual right to bear arms.

The Feds and particularly a new presidential candidate let slip their plans to turn Puerto Rico, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, US Virgin Islands, and American Samoa into full states with voting Senators and congressmen.

In exchange for Statehood and other cash payments (to the right causes and people) these new States would tip the balance of power enough to meet the gun control objectives.

Getting wind of the plan, first, the constitution respecting States object, but then after losing the election they see the wheels go in motion, call their respective legislatures, and vote to secede.

Did they vote to secede over gun control? Yes, to some degree, but at least as importantly, they seceded because the Federal government was acting outside its authority, and taking action to unfairly change the balance of power to pass new law.

Do the people in the seceding States have a right to pride in their stand? Whether one agrees or disagrees with gun control, it is perfectly fine to have pride in those that stood up to the Federal government power grab.

[CommerceComet]

Take Comedians doing a show in NYC. The favorite guaranteed go-to joke is the typical ignorant, racist, hick redneck. They all laugh and approve - applaud.

Your example might make a point if the "Good Old Boy" comedians didn't have much the same material.

Reading this thread, you'd get the impression the Civil War was fought because of the personal insecurity of the Southerns. The war was fought more substantive reasons than hurt feelings.

[olepap]

Southerners are warriors. The highest earthly authority we recognize is War Chieftain.

[military cop]

I STILL don’t feel like going beyond my beloved Alabama...

RLTW

[AppyPappy]

” Civil War was fought because of the personal insecurity of the Southerns.”

That was pretty much it. The South believed the North was working to free the slaves which would have spelled trouble for the South. The South had made a deal with the Devil and payment was coming due.
Note: My family fought for the South. My GGGrandfather was killed by a yankee at Appomattox.

[TangibleDisgust]

i find it curious that the same sort of people who insist that the “confederate” flag must be hidden away so as not to offend anyone who could possibly be offended by it...

...also tend to be the kind of people who have little Darwin fish on the backs of their Priuses.