Let's sum up the blog so far: For a state that wasn’t even a state during the Civil War, Washington has an unfortunate number of Confederates. Back in 2017, every shell-shocked Democrat had their own theory to explain President Trump’s election. I came up with mine after a third-grade concert. A Chevy parked outside the … Continue reading Washington State Has Too Many Confederates
By now, we’ve come to expect that Confederate battle flags are scarce in many other parts of the country, including the former Confederacy. No surprise then, that we saw none during a recent trip to Chicago and Northern Illinois. And yet, they are not hard to spot in the Pacific Northwest, and the Washington Post … Continue reading Chi-town: Not a Rebel Town
We’ve been keeping a close eye out for Confederate flags for the past year, but not until recently did we travel into actual Confederate territory. If we wanted to run up the numbers of battle flag sightings, we should have stayed home. In five days of travel between San Antonio and Austin (linked by I-35) … Continue reading Deep in the heart of Texas… where the Confederate Flag doesn’t wave
The Confederate Identity Project launched on Aug. 3, 2017, less than two weeks before the violence in Charlottesville. What got it going was a Confederate Flag sticker on a local car, 2,900 miles from Richmond. But we didn’t know much about the Confederacy, the Civil War, Reconstruction, or really, the American South at all. Here’s … Continue reading A year ago we thought Confederate politics lined up with modern politics. Were we right?
Remember when we didn't see any Confederate flags in Colorado? Well some one did, and wrote to the Longmont paper to complain: Confederate flag I was a teenager in Longmont in the 1960s and was part of the group that dragged Main (Street) back then. I went to the classic car show (Saturday) night on … Continue reading Confederate Flag for the Cruise in Colorado
It would take you longer than the Civil War lasted to read even a fraction of the 60,000-plus books written on it. Nevertheless, the average American’s understanding of the war remains unimpressive. To celebrate our pending blog-aversary, here’s five facts that surprised us as we read up: 1. It was way longer than you think. … Continue reading Five things you didn’t know about the Civil War
Did the Russians rally folks down South with fake calls to the Confederacy? Seems so. But that doesn't mean the actual Russian government can win friends on the same ground. President Trump seemed to endorse of Russian President Vladimir Putin's denial of hacking the 2016 presidential campaign when the two met in Helsinki. The fallout … Continue reading The Russians posed as Confederates online. They don’t sell as well in real life.
Let’s hope we are still chuckling years from now. A warning worthy of Henny Penny -- “BREAKING: Democrats Plan To Launch Civil War On July 4th” -- ended up stealing the show from a trio of serious warning flags in recent weeks. A majority of Americans believe the country is in “real danger of becoming … Continue reading Laughing at a another Civil War? There’s cause for second thoughts.
A new argument has been made in recent weeks, or perhaps an old argument has been revived, holding that calls for “civility” in public discourse amount to a smoke screen, that white people call for civility as a way to tamp down non-white peoples’ calls for greater equality. “We were going to end up here … Continue reading The Case for White Civility: Bleeding Kansas
One time, a police officer in South Carolina put on some Confederate battle flag underwear. We probably would never have known this, except he took a picture of himself in said underwear and posted it online. And if there is one thing social media is good for, it’s conveying the power of identity politics to … Continue reading Cops and Confederate Flags
Confederate Identity Project 