The Neo-Confederate Fortress

[haikugal]

This article at Alternet is very informative. It isn't that I didn't know this but it is specific information about how this belief system is encouraged and what a drag it is on progress.

http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/why-scrapping-confederate-flag-existential-threat-huge-swathe-right-wing

TEA PARTY AND THE RIGHT

Why Scrapping the Confederate Flag Is a Threat to a Huge Swath of the Right-Wing Movement

Ed Sebesta discusses his life's work, researching and challenging the neo-Confederates.

One essential element of America's hard-right coalition that is consistently under acknowledged by media outsiders and downplayed by movement insiders is the neo-Confederate faction of Stars-and-Bars enthusiasts who revere Jefferson Davis, revile Abraham Lincoln and believe they are still battling Reconstruction in the form of liberal federal government policies. Leading neo-Confederate organizations like the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) and the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) insist their activities are merely historical in nature, and reject any implication that they are engaged in a long-term political campaign. But as the white supremacist terrorist Dylann Roof recently demonstrated, neo-Confederacy often uses heritage as a mask for racial hate.

Following Roof’s massacre at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, leading Republican politicians are capitulating to widespread pressure to condemn the display of the Confederate flag in state capitols across the Deep South. Yet neo-Confederacy maintains wide appeal across the South and deep influence within the broader conservative movement. The SCV, for example, oversees a junior ROTC program overseen by the federal government which enables the organization to promote “Confederate heroes” in public high schools and bestow awards on ROTC participants named after a Confederate military submarine, H.L. Hunley. Meanwhile, the UDC helps organize the annual presidential wreath delivery to the Confederate Army Monument at Arlington National Cemetery. President Obama is the most recent president to participate in this federal tradition, rejecting pressure from academics and activists to cease honoring Confederate veterans.

There is much said here about bashing the south, I hope this is read with an eye to being informed.

[sharp_stick]

1. Great Article

Thanks for pointing it out.

[haikugal]

2. You're most welcome!

I think this is a very important issue that must be addressed.