Wednesday, April 7, 2010

The Ol' South

Is it so wrong to love the Old South?

Uh... lemme think.


Do you know what the Confederates were? Do you know who instigated the entire revolt? I know the word they use for such people: traitors. Yes, they were traitors. When you try to rend the country in two and actively attack it (and yes, you idiots fired first at Fort Sumter), you are a traitor.

Do you feel pride in that?

And why did you decide to destroy the country? We'll hear lots of excuses and reasons. The most commonly used is the 'we were trying to assert states' rights'. Oh really? Why, pray tell, did the South advocate an increase in federal power during periods when Democratic presidents were elected or during Democratic majorities in Congress? Where were 'state's rights' then?

Admit to yourselves: it was over slavery. And you guys fought and died attempting to create a nation of traitors in order to keep human beings in chains as your servants. Examine all the literature pre-Civil War, all the debates and clashes in government. They weren't arguing over representation in Congress. Why was so much grief exerted with 'popular sovereignty' in new states such as Kansas and Nebraska? They weren't voting on whether to authorize oil drilling, they were voting on whether to enslave their fellow human beings.

Don't even pretend that the entire South was united, anyway. Not all of Virgina approved of slavery and the need to kill for it, as West Virgina can testify. Eastern Tennessee had to be occupied by the Confederate military to keep it from doing the same, and Northern Alabama wasn't far behind. 'Noble' Texas refused to provide the Confederate army with any troops, and North Carolina outright ignored the military draft. The only thing which united them all was racism towards everyone who wasn't white.

But go ahead. Celebrate being a traitor. Take pride in causing the deaths of 650,000 American Soldiers (total from both sides) for such a petty issue that almost every other civilized nation in the world had taken care of (abolishing slavery, although racism was still an issue in many). Have fun reveling in being turncoats and deserters.

The only thing they should feel about the Confederacy is shame, shame for seceding over the enslavement of fellow human beings and shame for forcing the population in those states into fighting and dying for it, when most of the common people didn't give two shits either way. They weren't fighting for some noble and just cause.

Get over it.