"The Rebel flag has always been a big part of the south, they ought to keep it there"
An indictment of public education. The flag has no more historical business flying over Blount Country than it does over Boston Massachusetts. As we discussed on the other thread, Blount County was strongly pro-Union during the war. The county voted by over four to one to stay in the Union.
If they want to embrace their heritage and honor their Unionist forefathers, they should choose another symbol than the flag that their ancestors were so opposed to.
And as someone may have failed to point out to you, the people in Blount County were bound by that vote to secede with the majority of their fellow-citizens, who in the whole, acting as their State, were the sovereign power and were authorized to take the step of secession, and to bind everyone in the State to the will of the whole People thereof.
One could deduce that in the modern era they (Blount Countians) prefer feeling Southern as opposed to Unionist.
Quite common I've observed all over formerly majority Unionist Central and Southern Appalachia.
I have property in a gentrified area of Appalachia and while driving in those environs I find Southern memorabilia most frequently.
One should remember that the western slope valley that runs basically from Chattanooga TN to Winchester VA and Cumberland MD was quite agricultural and Southern leaning. Those hillsides and knobs throughout the Cumberlands to the west and Appalachians to the east were of course less agricultural and less pro-Southern.
Not unlike Piney Woods red clay areas as well in the Deep South.
The land Scarlett... formed the political view to a degree.....
PS: The only reason this is an issue is actually because Maryville is a bit of a lefty-commie haven near Knoxville. The stink was instigated by them.
So as usual, FR's resident Southern heritage bashers find themselves in the tub with lefty PC toesuckers .