What Would Your Confederate Ancestor Say?

SC Sen. Mike Rose tells fellow senators that if they don’t vote to let the state take over Medicare from the federal government, the ghosts of their Confederate ancestors will be very unhappy with them.  My guess is that this argument has less rhetorical appeal compared to years past.  I would love to have seen the faces of those African American state representatives.

By extension, I think we can safely assume that our Confederate ancestors would also not support voting for Obama this coming November. Here is an older post for those of you who are still convinced that the brief Confederate experiment had anything to do with the protection of states rights.

Civil War Memory has moved to Substack! Don’t miss a single post. Subscribe below.

12 comments… add one
  • Connie Chastain Apr 16, 2012 @ 4:19

    “I would love to have seen the faces of those African American state representatives.”

    Everything is race, race, race to you.

    • Kevin Levin Apr 16, 2012 @ 5:33

      As far as I can tell any mention of race is too much for you. I just don’t believe that federal control of healthcare would have presented as much of a problem for Confederates given their political record as compared with a black president given what they had to say about race.

      • Joshua Horn Apr 16, 2012 @ 6:21

        And the majority of Northerners would have been just as horrified to have a black president. You can’t divided America in 1860s into the racist South and non-racist North. The majority of both were racist.

        • Kevin Levin Apr 16, 2012 @ 6:22

          Of course they would have been horrified.

          • Joshua Horn Apr 16, 2012 @ 6:31

            Well than why don’t we see a constant series of posts on this blog of the many people who refer to Lincoln and friends as fighting for black rights, when the North also was racist?

            • Kevin Levin Apr 16, 2012 @ 6:34

              I encourage you to spend some time looking through my posts on Lincoln. Beyond that it is entirely up to you to decide what the absence of something on this site means. Perhaps this recent essay in the Atlantic will make you feel better: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/02/how-the-men-of-glory-stood-up-to-the-us-government/253410/

            • Michael Douglas Apr 16, 2012 @ 15:09

              I’m almost 60 years old and I have never heard Lincoln being championed as a fighter for black rights. Lincoln was an astute politician who achieved greatness by preserving the Union and, in the process of doing so, abolished a barbaric practice that the Confederacy desired to make permanent. Lincoln freed the slaves for both political and philosophical reasons. Not because he was fighting for black rights.

              He was also a racist, as were the majority of Americans north and south, whose attitudes and opinions changed and evolved over time, perhaps becoming a bit more enlightened; as did the opinions and attitudes of many Americans, north and south.

              Anyone who believes that Lincoln was a saint is just as delusional and ignorant as those who believe that Lee was. Difference is, I never see people making the claim for Lincoln.

              • Kevin Levin Apr 16, 2012 @ 15:19

                I’m almost 60 years old and I have never heard Lincoln being championed as a fighter for black rights.

                There is a rich vein of anti-Lincoln rhetoric that goes back at least to Lerone Bennett’s Ebony article in the 1960s.

                • Michael Douglas Apr 17, 2012 @ 6:02

                  I actually read that article, but I barely remember it. It was a long time ago; I was in 10th grade! 😉 Have you read “Forced Into Glory: Abraham Lincoln’s White Dream”? Bennett is one that Lincoln haters like to trot out when they want to play the see-there’s-even-a-black-man-who-agrees-with-us card.

  • Rob Baker Apr 16, 2012 @ 3:52

    That must be the new underlying cause of the Civil War…..”socialism”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *