Trump might go down in history as the last president of the Confederacy

[Zorro]

It should have happened 155 years ago, when Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, but maybe — just maybe — the Civil War is finally coming to an end. And perhaps Donald Trump, not Jefferson Davis, will go down in history as the last president of the Confederacy.

Symbols like flags and monuments matter, because what they symbolize is our vision of ourselves as a nation: the heroes, battles, movements, sacrifices and ideals we honor. So when I see multiracial crowds toppling the statues of Confederate soldiers and politicians, when I see respected military leaders arguing that Army posts should no longer bear the names of Confederate generals, when I see NASCAR banning displays of the Confederate battle flag at its races — witnessing all of this, I let hope triumph over experience and allow myself to imagine that this may indeed be a transformational moment.

Like the Civil War itself, “Lost Cause” symbology is simply and entirely about white supremacy. It has nothing to do with “heritage” or “tradition” or any such gauzy nonsense. The heavily armed “liberate Michigan” mob that invaded the statehouse in Lansing, egged on by President Trump, had no historical reason to be waving the Confederate flag. That banner represents the knee that has been kept on the necks of African Americans not just for eight minutes and 46 seconds, the time Derek Chauvin spent crushing the life out of George Floyd, but for 401 years.

Lee’s surrender ended nothing, because the nation did not even begin to grapple with white supremacy. Reconstruction was strangled in its infancy; true racial reconciliation was never even attempted. The statue of Davis in Richmond, brought down by protesters Wednesday night, was not erected until 1907. Like almost all of the Lost Cause monuments, it was built during the revanchist era, when Southern whites were celebrating their reestablished dominance over African Americans via repressive Jim Crow laws and the terrorism of the Ku Klux Klan.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-might-go-down-in-history-as-the-last-president-of-the-confederacy/2020/06/11/590194e2-ac13-11ea-94d2-d7bc43b26bf9_story.html

[SheltieLover]

1. K&R!

Yup...slow on uptake. I've actually seen southerners with T-shirts saying the south won. Probably looking for fights, or just proud to demonstrate delusions.

[quickesst]

3. you have also seen

.... white, armed protesters at the statehouse in Michigan, a northern state, and a white northerner cop in New York City, New York murder a black man in front of the world. The South has enough crosses to bear, and a lot to atone for without also being blamed for the racism that exists in the northern states.

[quickesst]

2. damn

The banner represents some despicable things, including a past a lot of us down here are trying to atone for, and change, and the statues need to come down, plus the military bases names need to change, but Derek Chauvin is a white cop representing New York City, New York, who fought fought for the Union. Trying to label this cop as representative of the South is like Donald Trump labeling all of the looters and fire bombers as antifa. People think the North is as pure as the driven snow? Take a look in the streets of New York, Milwaukee, San Francisco, etc etc, and ask yourselves, "Why are we still here in 2020, and why is it happening to the entire country, South, North, East, and West? It's like someone pointing over the fence at their neighbors big pile of shit in their yard, while standing on their own pile of shit in order to do it. The pretense that there is not a crap load of racists in the North needs to end.

[PJMcK]

4. Okay, but Derek Chauvin is/was not a New York City cop

He is from Minneapolis, which is 1,200 miles from New York City.

Derek Chauvin did not fight for the Union, as you wrote. In fact, the Civil war was over a hundred years before the man was born.

While I vaguely agree with what I think is your point, please get your facts straight.

[quickesst]

5. holyshit man

So he's from Minneapolis. It's still in the North, he is representing a northern city, in a Northern State. That I made an error in the location of the incident makes no difference whatsoever.
You are making claims about my post that are absolutely not true. Where did I ever say that Derek Chauvin fought in the Civil War? Here is what I wrote.

"Derek Chauvin is a white cop representing New York City, New York (I acknowledge my error) who fought for the Union."

Trade New York for Minnesota and the premise is still the same. A white cop from the Northern State of Minnesota which fought for the Union, and it remains the same.

You are basing your claim on one word, "who" which seems for anyone using common sense and logic will understand that I was talking about the state of ( you are correct it is Minnesota). You are probably 1 in 10000 that would interpret the sentence as you did. That Derek Chauvin would be well over 100 years old would probably be the first clue, and if not dead, would not have the strength to choke out anyone.

As I told another poster, we have many crosses to bear, and still a long road to atonement, but just because we are carrying that burden does not mean we should also carry the burden of racism that absolutely exists in the North.