For a long time now the Republicans have looked in vain for some governmental initiative they can actually say “Yes!” to with fervor. And so it comes as no surprise that slavery-nostalgia has once again risen with it’s gory frame in Virginia just in time for Republicans and their Tea Party cousins to say “Yes! Yes! Yes!”
You see, a Republican’s idea of “civil rights” would have us all return to the romantic past of nearly free, but wholly exploited, labor and godlike power over other human beings who would provide that free labor and all the economic benefits that can accrue thus allowing for the fetishization of such luxuries as chivalry and gentlemanliness, courtesies not extended to black women who were, instead, sexually exploited and at very young ages. What a wonderful world!!!
And so we have the recent decision by the Republican Master of Virginia to proclaim April as "Confederate History Month"?
Yes, yes, Republicans and a few hard core old-time leftists argue that the Civil War wasn’t about slavery. But try telling that to the enslaved folks of the day or their descendants. I can hear it now as a slaveowner speaks to one of his enslaved at the time: “Henry, you been with me a long time, as were your wife and children before I sold them to those Georgia planters, and I want you to know that I don’t intend to fight for the Confederacy so that I can continue to enslave you or even so that I can continue my nightly visits to your daughter! No! In fact, I’m opposed to slavery, but I’m enslaved by it as much as you are!”
Because, as Republiconfederates will tell you, the war was fought to defend “States’ Rights!” Like, for example, the States’ Rights to trample on Human Rights without interference from the pesky Bill of Rights. Or to put it another way, it’s the States’ Rights to enslave, exploit, sell, maim, rape, torture, and kill other human beings.
Now, the Virginia proclamation doesn’t mention any of that. Defenders of it speak of the South’s “War of Independence” without mentioning that the enslaved people who really needed independence would have seen little of it had the South won its war of independence.
The proclamation called for a remembrance of a time when Confederate soldiers "fought for their homes and communities and Commonwealth in a time very different than ours today."
Yes, a different time, and . . . a better time our Republiconfederates wistfully tell us.
That language – “a different time” –is meant to exculpate the Confederacy of its support of slavery. This is the kind of cultural relativism that conservatives generally reject.
True, after a while, the Virginia Governor apologized for omitting any mention of slavery in the Proclamation. However, I’d argue that he did not omit a mention of slavery in the Proclamation. “Confederacy” is synonymous with “slavery.” The two are at least inextricable. Praising the Confederacy, praising those who fought for the Confederacy, amounts to praising the right to enslave. The Rebel flag on your truck says, “I appreciate those enslavers!”
Now some Republiconfederate leaders around the country if asked to comment on the Virginia proclamation that seems to ignore an evil defended by the Confederacy at the time would probably say, “You know, slavery . . . that’s all behind us now. No point on dwelling on that.”
Well, the Confederacy, having lost, is surely behind us now, too, until, that is, Republiconfederates want to fire up the base. What’s next? Slavery reenactment gatherings?
The Huffington Post reports that Governor McDonnell amended the original Proclamation: "The original declaration called on Virginians to 'understand the sacrifices of the Confederate leaders, soldiers and citizens during the period of the Civil War.' McDonnell added language to the document that said slavery 'was an evil and inhumane practice that deprived people of their God-given inalienable rights and all Virginians are thankful for its permanent eradication from our borders.'"
How do we honor the "sacrifices" of those who would have perpetuated the deprivation of "God-given inalienable rights"?
Now, if we press the slavery point with Southerners, while they press the "honor of our Southern way of life and our homes" bilge, they will often regard us with contempt and say, "You just can't understand," as if we are some sort of uncivilized brutes. But I do understand this: If the South had won the war, slavery would have been perpetuated.
Maybe it can be reduced to this question: Is there one black person in Virginia or anywhere in the country who will honor the Confederacy . . . ever?
Lincoln was right to make an effort to heal the wounds after the Civil War. It was a magnanimous gesture and necessary given a war that pitted family members, not just citizens, against one another.
But the ongoing Confederacy fetish dragged out of some murky Southern swamp for the purpose of firing up the deranged right wing of the Republican base doesn’t deserve magnanimity. It deserves, as it always has deserved, derision and opposition.
