Defending the Confederacy

The South has always had to defend itself, first in the halls of Congress, then militarily on the battlefield, but since 1865 in the annals of history. For surely today we are seen as the most defensive region in the country but that’s because we are the most attacked and maligned region in the country. The smears and denigrations have greatly increased in recent months with the latest campaign to erase our past with the destruction of Confederate monuments and memorials.

It’s unfortunate that we’ve been forced to defend ourselves, our region, our history, and most particularly the “Lost Cause” against attacks from without but, sadly, also from assaults by those who might be in sympathy with us. Clearly I’m talking about conservatives and right-leaning Republicans but now that emotions have been greatly ratcheted up with the Charlottesville rally and its aftermath, almost no one will defend the South and the cause of the Confederacy. These days they are running from it like the plague.

Last week on “Hannity,” Newt Gingrich, who holds a Ph.D. in history and who might be seen as one who understands the true history of the South, said that the Confederate flag represented those who “defended slavery and slave trading.” I was stunned, to say the least. Obviously one could make a halfway acceptable argument on the slavery issue, but slave trading?