Eugene Robinson: Whistling Dixie—Again

[babylonsister]

Whistling Dixie—Again
Posted on Feb 17, 2011
By Eugene Robinson


Does Haley Barbour really have a warped and offensive view of America’s racial history? Or is he just playing a dangerous game?

Perhaps both.

The Mississippi governor, considered a potential Republican candidate for president in 2012, keeps displaying what appears to be an astonishing level of ignorance about our nearly 400-year struggle with issues of race. At this point, it’s more than a pattern. It’s either a pathology or a plan.

The latest outrage—and I don’t use that word lightly—came Tuesday, when Barbour was asked to comment on a proposal for a state license plate honoring one of the most notorious figures of the Civil War era, Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest. I question whether any Confederate officer is worthy of such recognition, given that they were all committing treason. But even for the Sons of Confederate Veterans—the group proposing the license plate—Forrest should be an embarrassment.

For those who do not see the Civil War through a revisionist gauze of gallantry and Spanish moss, Forrest is an abomination. In 1864, his troops mowed down scores of black Union soldiers who were trying to surrender, in what became known as the Fort Pillow Massacre. After the war, Forrest became one of the founding fathers of the terrorist Ku Klux Klan—and was the group’s first national leader, or “grand wizard.”


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http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/whistling_dixie_--_again_20110217/

[JoePhilly]

1. GOP's Southern Strategy is always at work. nt

[rasputin1952]

2. Searching for "heroes" from the CSA is troubling to say the least...

About the only word I can come up with for what the Confederates did, is treason.

To be sure, Some 80 years prior to that, the Continentals and Militias during the Revolution were traitors as well...to the Crown of England. However, after establishing the United States by Constitution after a long and bloody war, to secede was about as treasonous as it could get.

I've known many people from the South, most of them are torn on how they feel about the CW, but virtually all of them think this part of American history was necessary to cement the nation together. Most believe that Lincoln would have been far better after the war to help get the South back on steady footing as opposed to Andrew Johnson, who could not hold the Radical Republicans back from their often disastrous Reconstruction. When Booth killed Lincoln, he sealed the fate of the South to almost 80 years of destitution...and the birth of the KKK.

Forrest and others in the KKK initially went after Federal troops, but soon turned their attention to Blacks, terrorizing anyone they came across and submitting them to unspeakable horror. In essence, they were homegrown terrorists bent on regaining authority over those they had subjugated for 200 years. A pathetic stain on this nation's history that has yet to be cleansed.

Forrest was brutal in his treatment of prisoners at Ft Pillow and other battles, particularly to Blacks. he is considered to be a tactical genius, but beyond that, he was, quite simply a racist that justified his behavior by "military necessity". I have yet to understand why slaughtering surrenering troops is somehow "necessary", it what hapened after the war that is even more disturbing.

For anyone to become one of the founding members of a terrorist organization and escape scrutiny is bad...then "honoring" such an individual is worse. Barbour, in attempting to "justify" placing Forrest's likeness on a state sanctioned license plate is truly a poor move. To me at least, it shows a pandering to a small group of people that think somehow, this will justify some of the worst behavior a human being is capable of.

I'd love to see Barbour run as the GOP nominee for president after this, he'd be lucky to carry his own state.

[Blue_Tires]

4. +1

[MasonJar]

3. Barbour or Palin or Bachman. Now there's a trio. Go for it, GOPers.