The Left’s selective use of history for political purposes
Dare to even possess a book that treats Robert E. Lee or Jefferson Davis fairly, and you will be pounded into smithereens by the Bernie Sanders Fan Club and their comrades in the driveby media.
Republican legislators Mitch Setzer and Larry Pittman had the nerve to show up at a Sons of Confederate Veterans reception in Raleigh. (The group has popped back up on the political radar to fight Roy Cooper’s jihad against Confederate statues. *You know, those inanimate objects responsible for the explosive growth of the welfare state and all that murder and drugs in Durham, Charlotte, Fayetteville and Wilmington.*)
Of course, the dumpster-divers in the N&O newsroom ran across Facebook photos of Setzer and Pittman performing the despicable act and immediately started fanning the flames of outrage.
VA Secretary nominee Robert Wilkie is getting similar treatment from national leftists trying to derail his confirmation. Full disclosure: I know Wilkie from my time on Capitol Hill, and during his time as NCGOP executive director and a congressional candidate while I was a driveby here in NC.
On the Hill, folks who knew Wilkie the best jokingly referred to him as “Robert E. Lee” Wilkie due to his intense interest in Civil War history. As he’s climbed the food chain in DC, Wilkie has been downplaying that interest — likely upon the advice of political handlers.
Wilkie is one of the smartest people I’ve known. I’ve never seen or heard anything from him that could come close to being called racist.
It’s a shame that an interest in this country’s history can be portrayed as racism. There are a lot of lessons to be learned from that four year period of conflict, as well as the years preceding and following it.
Meanwhile, Bobby Rush continues to sit and serve as a member-in-good-standing of the US House Democrat caucus. Rush was a leader of the radical Black Panther movement in the 1960s. Liberals like to portray the Panthers as some sort of benevolent charity group — feeding and clothing the poor.
Yet, talk to military veterans serving at that time, and they can tell you of the Panthers teaming up with the Weather Underground (Obama buddy Bill Ayers’s group) to engage in guerrilla warfare against active duty US military personnel and installations IN THE UNITED STATES.
Snipers targeted troops in convoys moving along US highways. Explosives were set off in the vicinity of military facilities. I spoke to one veteran who served during that era who told me:
“I took more enemy fire in California than I did in Vietnam. It was surreal. You never imagined that happening in your own country.”
And one of the leaders of that mayhem is a Democrat congressman-in-good-standing.
Liberals like to bash Sons of Confederate Veterans members for celebrating “treason.” Yet, the Black Panthers are celebrated by Democrats and one of their leaders is even allowed to represent the party in Congress. Shooting at US troops 150 years ago on American soil is “treason,” but shooting at US troops FIFTY years ago on American soil is NOT?
What do you expect from a California owned rag like the N&O?. The sooner it is out of business, the better for our state. It is nothing but a propaganda sheet for the extreme left, not even fit as a mullet wrapper or to house train your dog.
Confederate Memorials should remain! I have relatives that fought in the Confederate War . We had no Slaves. War also involved keeping the North from taking Southern Property, and Valuables. Learn the truth!
He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present control the past.
George Orwell
The Politically Correct Taliban controls the present.
Before the “formerly white supremacist” Democrat N&O points fingers, it should remember that the N&O acknowledged its role in an ugly chapter of NC’s history. Perhaps our liberal Pilot should remember its family roots as well.
https://www.editorandpublisher.com/news/why-north-carolina-papers-apologized-for-role-in-1898-race-riots/
The leftist media spews ignorance and deliberate disinformation when it comes to the War Between the States, as do far left politicians like Roy Cooper.
They have it backward as to which side’s military policy was racist
– The northern army gave minority soldiers half the pay of white soldiers. The Confederate army gave minority soldiers the same pay as white soldiers.
– The northern army did not allow minorities to serve as commissioned officers (lieutenant and above). The Confederate army allowed minorities to hold any rank, and had a minority reach the rank of general in the Confederate army
– The northern army segregated its regiments (other than the white officers of the minority regiments) while the Confederate army integrated its regiments.
Slavery? There were slave owners who fought on both sides in the war and slave states that supported each side. There were also opponents of slavery who fought on both sides.
The far left should listen to its own guru on this one. Karl Marx wrote while the War Between the States was still in progress that “the war is not about slavery; it is a war of economic subjugation by the north against the south.”