Last Call

The South shall rise again, apparently.

Are you fed up with the feds? Do you think that 1) Obama is a modern-day Abe Lincoln, and 2) that's a horrible thing?

Are you into celebrating eugenics your heritage, defending slavery your homeland, and denouncing the US Constitution unfair tariffs on your exports?

You might be a neo-Confederate! And brothers and sisters, do we have a club for you! Just in time for the 150th anniversary of the shots that started the Civil War, one longtime Southern—ahem—heritage society, the Sons of Confederate Veterans, is celebrating with a huge membership drive and a bevy of TV commercials...some of which had been airing on the History Channel. Until Monday, that is, when the History Channel figured their ads should probably reflect some basic understanding of, you know, history.

Funny guys, these SCV fellows...second we get a black President, we get Gone With The Wind.  Amazing how that works. 

Now, Civil War revisionism is nothing new. For generations, Southern apologists have argued that the stars and bars and rebel gray are about "heritage," not hate; that the war was fought over "states' rights," not slavery. But the SCV's new ads are custom-tailored to our post-Obama tea party zeitgeist. The code words have changed from "states' rights" to "federal taxation." The war was "really about money and control," we learn, not long after hearing how the aggressive radical Abraham Lincoln had no qualms about throwing waves of Northern soldiers to their deaths to extract a tribute from the poor, put-upon men of Dixie who "stood courageously for liberty." Says the sing-songy female narrator who delivers these historical "truths":

Don't let others do your thinking for you! Don't allow them to rob you of your heritage while they celebrate their own! Be proud of your Southern history and heritage!

Also, wear ear protection when in range of race-bating dog whistles of this volume.  Best part:  One of the members is South Carolina Republican Joe "You Lie!" Wilson.

I don't mind people taking an interest in history.  I do mind people revising it.