Charlottesville fallout continues

After the violence in Charlottesville, two trends have appeared: the left is going after the symbols of Confederacy, while the far-right's non-Confederate white nationalists are bickering among themselves. The finger-pointing, distancing and general fractiousness of "Alt-right" and "Alt-light" white nationalists is chronicled in this story by Leighton Woodhouse of the Intercept. It's an interesting read, …

Confederate Ideology: Hardened in War

What did the Confederates believe? Could you explain their ideology? As I mentioned in starting this project, I didn’t have much idea myself, but what I did know made me think that nothing resembled today’s Trumpism so much as Confederate politics. Now that I’ve done a bit of reading, I remain convinced. Let’s start with …

The Washington Post: Robert E. Lee ‘descendant’ — and denouncer — quits N.C. pastor post over ‘hurtful’ reaction to VMAs speech

Note the phrase "Confederate morals" in this article.

Reality check: Americans still favor Confederate statuary

After a week of wall-to-wall news coverage of the violence in Charlottesville and President Trump’s failure to forcefully condemn white supremacy, we find that Americans’ views of things have not changed much. Trump gets poor reviews from Democrats and independents for his handling of the crisis, but Republicans think he’s doing OK. And, most importantly …

“I want them to talk about racism every day”

“The Democrats, the longer they talk about identity politics, I got ’em. I want them to talk about racism every day. If the left is focused on race and identity, and we go with economic nationalism, we can crush the Democrats.” -- Steve Bannon, Whitehouse strategist

Time was, Nazis and Confederates didn’t mix

I am still a learner here, so “Confederate flags and Nazi swastikas together? That’s new,” an article by a political science professor, was hugely illuminating. It explains how Southerners were more eager than most Americans to fight Nazis in the World War II era. A generation later, it was the nation’s most famous clansman, David …

Slavery central to American Identity?

In a recent article Seattle Times columnist Jerry Large takes on a subject closely related to the one we're talking about here. Large argues that slavery is central to any understanding of American identity (although he doesn't use the term identity). And you can't talk about slavery without discussing the Confederacy:In 2011, as the 150th …

The day I realized modern politics are Confederate politics

Lately I've been trying to make sense of modern politics. You may say I would have a better chance at making self-changing baby diapers -- and I'd do more for world happiness. But I'm not alone in my quest. In a time when the old rules are broken -- now Democrats are tough on Russia …